WEEKEND QUOTABLES

The problem with billionaire philanthropists

A strong nonprofit sector, fueled by tax-deductible donations, is one of the great things about the United States and it's hardly new. What is unnerving is the scale of philanthropy today and the growing clout of super rich donors. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives away six or seven times as much money every year as the Ford Foundation, which just a decade ago was the largest foundation in the United States. And there's plenty more where that came from: In 1982 the combined net worth of the richest 400 Americans represented 2.8 percent of GDP. Now that figure is around 10 percent. (David Callahan, Huffington)

Al Sharpton

Sharpton told the Daily News last week his National Action Network never got any of Bloomberg's money - "not that I know of."

CTU Prez Karen Lewis

Apparently the Tribune was unconcerned with the facts. Nor did the Tribune check its facts on the 241 teacher firings under Washington, D.C., schools chief Michelle Rhee, citing that 165 were "judged as the worst teachers in the system." It turns out only one-third of those dismissed teachers received poor ratings on a newly installed teacher evaluation system that has been proven neither valid nor reliable. But that would make the Tribune's persistent teacher-bashing, under the guise of protecting students, moot.

Can the editors truly make the next leap in their logic? That laying off 239 expert career teachers this year while Teach for America novices, 80 percent of whom will leave the classroom in fewer than three years, remain in classrooms, is in the best interest of students? (Letter to the Tribune)

NEW YEAR QUOTABLES

Tilson on Meier--'She should visit a charter school'

In his latest diatribe, hedge-fund billionaire and educational no-nothing, Whitney Tilson goes off on Deborah Meier, Diane Ravitch, and, Jonathan Kozol, calling their writings, "idiotic" and "moronic." Lines like the one below would be mildly amusing were it not for Tilson's influence in the Bloomberg administration and in Arne Duncan's DOE:

In short, Meier is so ignorant about charters that it boggles my mind. Has she ever visited a high-performing charter school?! I can only assume not.

What Tom VanderArk liked most about the Bush years

1. NCLB--"...marked a consensus that 1) measurement matters, 2) all students deserve good life options, 3) we should rely on average achievement to measure a schools success..." 2. Private control of public schools--"There was a massive increase in education entrepreneurship—school developers, human capital initiatives, and learning platforms—funded by massive new money foundations...Democrats for Education Reform and Education Equality Project joined the fray" 3. The Recession--"brought a new wave of talent into the sector that will make a difference for a generation."

Me: He left out the tsunami, which taught people how to run for higher ground.


What Chicago machine politician, Dan Burke, likes most about the Daley machine

"Yeah, there is a machine. A machine is created to do a job more efficiently."

His opponent, community activist, Rudy Lozano, Jr.

"It's like therapy," he said. "It's the closest true way for me to understand what my father was doing 26 years ago. I missed most of that. This experience has given me the opportunity to walk in those footsteps."

Putting down the insurrection

Rotherham and the boys at Eduwonk worry about the growing resistance movement:

In both counterinsurgency and education reform don’t assume that because the statues in the capital come down the resistance is over.

Me: I think Andrew is badly needed in Kabul.

THE "LISTENING" TOUR

THE BEDFELLOWS' TOUR

Slate (h/t Russo)

Newt selling Duncan's plan in Philly road show

Gingrich, a Republican, wants more charter schools and stronger charter laws in all states. "When you go to those kind of schools, you realize what is possible for all American children," said Gingrich. "If we have absolute proof it can be done, why aren't we doing it? We are literally risking the lives of these kids."

Duncan acknowledged that some have called for tighter monitoring of charter schools. In Philadelphia, for instance, federal authorities are investigating at least six charters for alleged financial mismanagement. (Inquirer)

Chicago's 'miracle' up in smoke--poooof

Duncan's legacy

Sometime over the past week, CPS officials quietly posted the 2009 Prairie State and ACT test scores. They didn’t hold a press conference or even issue a release, as is the custom. And it is no wonder. Scores on both exams stagnated this year. And the scores for juniors who have been part of the district’s High School Transformation project since their freshmen year were no better, and in some cases worse, than their predecessors. (Catalyst)

1 million homeless kids

There are now an estimated 1 million homeless students. This according to data from the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth.

The latest on BBA

I was beginning to wonder when and if the Broader Bolder Approach (BBA) group was going to gather some momentum. But now they seem to be on the move and fighting for a seat at an education policy table thus far dominated by conservative opponent Education Equity Project (EEP). That group, led by N.Y. Mayor Bloomberg, Al Sharpton, and Newt Gingrich, favors privatization and wants even greater emphasis on standardized testing. Until now, they have had the closest ties with Ed Sec. Arne Duncan and the greatest influence on DOE policy initiatives like Race To The Top.

A update issued today by co-chairs Co-Chairs Helen Ladd, Pedro Noguera, Tom Payzant, details BBA's early progress. It includes the BBA report, issued in June, which maintains that the burden of school reform cannot be shouldered by schools alone and that test scores alone cannot represent a true measure of school success or failure. BBA calls for a policy approach with combines school improvement with improvements in family living conditions, including early childhood care and education, health, and out-of-school time. Duncan and his staff received a briefing on the report and asked BBA leaders to follow it up with specific recommendations.

According to the latest update, BBA has responded to the request with specifics on improvement of tests and their use and on how Race To The Top funds should be used to improve schools and the lives of children. Recently, BBA Accountability committee members Linda Darling-Hammond, Dennis Van Roekel, Richard Rothstein, and Diane Ravitch promoted the BBA report at the National Journal's web site.

Finn wants Duncan to "defund slacker schools"

Obama's ed team, led by Arne Duncan, is being pushed and pulled by the different factions inside the Democratic Party and out.

So far, he seems to be mainly under the sway of the conservative Democrats like the DFER hedge-fund school reformers as well as the Klein, Sharpton, Gingrich EEP group. Left mainly out of the mix so far, are the right-wing thin-tankers who ruled the roost at the Bush DOE. Chester Finn of the Fordham Institute is chief among those badly disappointed that Duncan hasn't gone far enough when it comes to busting teacher unions, closing inner-city schools or starving them into submission.

His latest diatribe,"Declaring Educational Bankruptcy" is in the latest National Review (surprise!), Finn wants Congress to remove all federal funding from "slacker schools"--read, those with lots of kids who score below the mean on their standardized tests.

But for Finn, even closing the low-scoring schools isn't nearly enough.

If a school is actually closed, even temporarily, they must be accommodated in another one, which brings to bear all manner of rules, court orders, transportation challenges, crowding issues, etc.

Maybe Finn is thinking we could de-fund the slacker courts and get rid all manner of rules while we're at it.

Turn schools over to private charter operators "or else"

Stimulus or blackmail?

Arne Duncan is feeling powerful these days. After 9 years of "yes boss" on Mayor Daley's plantation, Duncan now finds himself with $15 billion in stimulus money in his back pocket and cash-starved schools in front of him. So he's trying to force school districts into accepting the Gingrich, Klein, Sharpton (EEP) model of reform--turning schools over to privately managed charter operators--or else.

"We want to reward those states that are willing to lead the country where we need to go and are willing to push this reform agenda very, very hard," Duncan told the AP... "And the states that don't have the stomach or the political will, unfortunately, they're going to lose out," Duncan said. (NewsObserver.com)

Yeah, that'll work.

Weekend Quotables

State Rep. Cynthia Soto's bill was an attempt to pull in the reins on Chicago's Renaissance 2010 school closings. It passed the Senate with unanimous support, despite vocal opposition from Mayor Daley's lobbyists and CPS administrators. In a May 28th press release, Soto spelled out the reasoning behind House Bill 363:

"The Act will lead to a framework of fair standards and procedures for building, repairing, and closing Chicago schools," said Soto. "To this point, Chicago's lack of clear standards has created two different worlds in which are children are educated, which are grossly unequal." (Designs for Change)

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The same Newt Gingrich who once said that bilingual education was like teaching “the language of living in a ghetto” tweeted that Sotomayor is a “Latina woman racist.” (NYT columnist Charles Blow)

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This may be an oppressive, even fascistic charter school, the model of what neo-con George Will lovingly calls, "the new paternalism," but the misnamed American Indian school, does succeed in raising test scores. And after all, isn't this what public education for poor kids is all about?

Reporting from Oakland -- Not many schools in California recruit teachers with language like this: "We are looking for hard working people who believe in free market capitalism. . . . Multicultural specialists, ultra liberal zealots and college-tainted oppression liberators need not apply." (LA TIMES)

What happened to "the civil rights issue of the 21st century"?

Who's with Newt? EEP?

A week ago, race baiter Newt Gingrich was at the White House, lecturing Obama about education being the "civil rights issue of 21st century." He's one of the three top leaders and spokesman for the "no excuses" EEP education policy coalition, along with Joel Klein and Al Sharpton. Now Gingrich is joining conservative wing-nuts Limbaugh and Tancredo ("National Council of La Raza is equivalent to the KKK") in calling Judge Sotomayor a "racist".

So the question is: what brand of "civil rights" are Gingrich and his bedfellows in EEP really talking about? Fellow Republicans are running as fast as they can from Newt, hoping to salvage some credibility among Latino voters. But will Klein, Sharpton, Bloomberg, and Duncan (who spoke with Newt at the EEP White House rally) and the rest of the EEP leaders follow suit and repudiate?

I wasn't invited

No, I wasn't even asked to give my suggestions when the most powerful philanthro-capitalists gathered in N.Y. May 5th for a secret meeting about the current global financial meltdown. All of my favorites were there, including, Bill, Oprah, Warren, Mike and Eli. According to one report, each billionaire was given 15 minutes to deliver a presentation on how they saw the future global economic climate, the future priorities for philanthropy, and what they felt the elite group should do. I'm glad I wasn't there. I mean, what can you say in 15 minutes?

Illinois Senate passes school-closing bill 53-0-5

They passed a modified version of Cynthia Soto's bill that creates a Chicago Education Facilities Task Force to review the city’s school closing and construction policies and recommend new rules to govern facility decisions by Chicago Public Schools leaders. The vote was a real blow to CPS chief Huberman and Mayor Daley who each sent troops to Springfield to lobby against the bill. Don Moore, one of the bill’s architects and executive director of Designs for Change, said he expects the House to accept the Senate’s changes soon, possibly by next week. The governor would then have 60 days to sign or veto the bill.

BBA vs. EEP

Diane Ravitch responds to Deb Meier at Bridging Differences:

You are right to take issue with Brooks for treating the "miracle school" as a vindication of Joel Klein and Al Sharpton's Education Equality Project. EEP insists that schools alone—with no support from other institutions—can close the achievement gap. This is claptrap. The Broader Bolder Agenda (which we both signed) has steadfastly maintained that the gap won't close without addressing the need of children for improvements in health care and the well-being of their families. The Harlem Children's Zone was created to address these needs, and to place schooling in the context of families and communities.

Weekend Reads

Harlem school's successes were "no miracle" says Noguera

Posting as a guest on Gotham Schools, Pedro Noguera counter punches with NYT's conservative columnist David Brooks , "The Harlem Miracle," and makes mincemeat out of his arguments. Brooks had claimed that the jump in test scores at the Promise Academy school within the Harlem Children's Zone (HCZ) had "completely eliminated the black-white achievement gap," a affirmation of Joel Klein's conservative "no excuses" faction (EEP).

In fact, argues Noguera, who co-directs the Broader and Bolder Approach (BBA) policy coalition, the gains made by children at the school and within Geoffrey Canada's HCZ are attributable to a combination of quality education and a focus on their social and emotional needs.

The Promise Academy, praised by David Brooks, is a wonderful school, but it is not unique and hardly a “miracle.” There are several schools in Harlem and other parts of New York where poor children are achieving at high levels. Many of these are charter schools, but some are public and private schools. In most cases, these schools succeed not because they impart middle class values, (there is very little evidence that the middle class is the only group that values hard work and courteous behavior) but because of high academic expectations and a clear, coherent approach to educating children. Most importantly, these schools succeed because they also address social, health and psychological needs of the children and families they serve.

BTW, what happened to the giant EEP rally?

Organizers didn't say which five cities were going to be part of the education tour. Sharpton energized the crowd, leading a few hundred drizzle-kissed onlookers in the familiar chant: "No justice! No Peace!" (Daily News)

Brother Fred writes:

What if the Education Equality Project bunch call a rally and nobody shows? Rotherham predicted 40,000. Oops.

An "incredible spectacle"

Paul A. Moore is a teacher at Miami Carol City High School in Miami, Florida. He writes about "The Dreams of Grant Park," on Thomas Paine's Corner:

President Obama had voucher and charter school boosters to the White House the other day for advice on educational policy. The nation was treated to the incredible spectacle former Speaker Newt Gingrich posing as an enemy of racism and a proponent of civil rights for his concern over the “achievement gap”. There was no mention of the infant mortality gap, or the life expectancy gap, or the household assets gap, or the employment gap, or the incarceration gap, or the quality of healthcare gap, or any of the other gaps that might shatter the illusion that Newt Gingrich gives a damn about people of color.

Turning around 5,000 schools

Well, at least Edweek didn't run with the bogus headline saying Obama wants to "close 5,000 schools." But this "turnaround" business is bad enough, with Duncan extolling the so-called Chicago miracle as his model. The two comments here were right on target.

How are you going to get supposedly good teachers to come work at a failing school, especially if you start basing teacher's ability to feed their families on kids test scores?

The boundaries of school reform

James Forman, Jr. reviews two book and reflects on KIPP and the Harlem Children's Zone

Before KIPP, there was Harlem’s Central Park East, which flourished under Deborah Meier’s leadership in the 1980s and 1990s. For many years, Central Park East was the icon of “what works” in inner-city education, and Meier’s account of the school in The Power of Their Ideas remains one of the wisest books ever written about teaching. But Central Park East did not revolutionize education, because efforts to transplant what worked there into schools with different cultures and less-skilled educators often failed. (Boston Review).

Poverty's fallout

New study confirms damaging effects on brain development

Yesterday's WaPo reports on the latest research showing the damaging effects of poverty on childrens' cognitive development and especially on "working memory." The new studies provide more and deeper understanding of why poor kids tend to lag behind on standardized tests and why conditions in the community may have a greater impact on measurable learning outcomes than anything that happens in the classroom.

The findings indicate that education standards and other government policies that aim to improve poor children's performance in school should consider the stress they are experiencing at home, Evans said. "It's not just 'Read to our kids and take them to the library,' " he said. "We need to take into account that chronic stress takes a toll not only on their health, but it may take a toll on their cognitive functioning."

American Prospect and Matt Yglesias picked up the story. Dana Goldstein at Prospect writes:

All this suggests that the coalition of education experts that calls itself the Broader, Bolder Approach was barking up the right tree during election season, when it formed to discuss how poverty and inequality deplete student academic achievement. It was another education reform effort, however -- the Education Equality Project -- that created the bigger media splash.

But Goldstein doesn't quite get why BBA and EEP just can't get along.

There is no reason, of course, why a societal approach to alleviating poverty can't go hand in hand with support for charter schools and greater innovation in how to recruit, train, and pay teachers.

That systhesis between school improvement and improving the lives of children at home is exactly what BBA's Richard Rothstein, Pedro Noguera and others have been arguing for. But EEP leaders continue to play the one-note of testing madness begun under NCLB and won't move from their "no excuses" "work harder" arguments.

Public schools, private money

I don't think so

The Wonkster at Gotham Gazette, "Public Schools, Private Money," tells us how the game is played by Bloomberg/Klein.

All this may well have brought needed funds to city classrooms, but it also has created a tangled web and led to concerns about conflicts of interest and where the private roles stops and the public one begins.

Wonkster shows how companies like Alvarez & Marsal looted the city with the help of B/K and used the non-profit Fund for Public Schools to nail down no-compete contracts. Of course the latest hustle was the one to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars from the hedgefunders at Plainfield Asset Management Co. into the pockets of Rev. Al Sharpton to seal his political alliance with the mayor.

The money reportedly did not go directly to Sharpton but was channeled through Education Reform Now, a group Gonzalez said is headed by former Daily News reporter and charter school advocate Joe Williams, who also heads Democrats for Education Reform. Williams (another busy guy), who is president and treasurer of the Education Equity project, would not tell Gonzalez how the donation was handled or what it was used for.

Also see:

New York Public School Parents: "Al Sharpton's get out of jail card"
Fred Klonsky's blog: "What's the smell over at the Education Equality Project?"
Clay Burell: A $500k Donation the Same Day Sharpton Joins Klein? Mere Coincidence

A 'novel alliance'

How the hedge-fund "reformers" bought Sharpton

Thanks to Juan Gonzalez at the Daily News ("Rev. Al Sharpton's $500G link to education reform") for blowing the lid off the EEP, Klein/Sharpton "school reform" charade. Hedge-funders (as if we already didn't know) secretly paid for Sharpton's allegiance by funneling hundreds of thousands of dollars to his National Action Network, improperly using a non-profit, Education Reform Now, as the back-door for the money. Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) also got a cut. Even former NY Chancellor Levy was involved in the scandal. He acted as the pass-through. What else do you need to know about these sleazeballs?

The money came at a critical moment for the National Action Network. Sharpton was then settling a long-running IRS investigation of his organization. As part of that settlement, he agreed in July to pay $1 million in back taxes and penalties both he personally and his organization owed the government.

"The collaboration between Rev. Sharpton and Chancellor Klein is a novel alliance that we thought might help raise the visibility of the issue." The odd pairing will be on display this week at the annual convention of the National Action Network, where Mayor Bloomberg, Klein, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and several mayors are expected to speak.

The merit-pay 'radicals'

Blogging on Huffington, Klein & Sharpton make a long-winded and muddled argument for merit pay as a solution to the inequities of urban schooling. They are the leaders of the so-called "no-excuses" faction within the Democratic Party, (which includes John McCain) and Klein has led the way in recreating the nation's two-teir school system in NYC with a vengence.

The pair argue that equity in the distribution of teaching talent can come about by weakening collective bargaining agreements and distributing "bonuses" to individual teachers based solely or mainly on a single standardized test score. They insist that their "merit-based system is an obvious first step toward reducing educational inequality" and describe their plan as "truly radical."

They even name-drop Linda Darling-Hammond and Diane Ravitch to make their case more palatable to educators. The problem is that LDH has opposed their let's-pay-teachers-who-raise-student-scores approach in favor of a career-ladder and peer-evaluation approach as does Ravitch, who has broken with Klein's whole market-driven approach.

Of course there are fair and reasonable ways of rewarding schools and teams of teachers for excellence and for making the working conditions in inner-city schools more tolerable and attractive to career-minded professionals. They can only be developed with teachers at the table and not by undermining teachers' rights to bargain collectively. Obviously a far too radical idea for Klein and Sharpton.

Klein and the gang use King holiday to attack unions

Klein, Sharpton, Rhee, McCain, and their whole EEP crowd of hedge-fund school reformers were there. Klein called the pre-inauguration meeting supposedly to celebrate King Day, but really to prepare his troops for the coming battle with the Bolder, Broader policy group as they vie for Obama's ear on education.

Can you imagine Dr. King's name being used to attack unions? Reminds me of charter school operators who name schools after Cesar Chavez and then ban teachers from bargaining collectively.

The EEP group targets teacher unions and collective bargaining rights as the number-one problem in public education. Their strategy is built around privatized management of charter schools which are replacing hundreds of closed neighborhood schools. D.C. Supt. Rhee has become their main attack dog. New Ed Sec. Arne Duncan showed up, of course.

Rhee barked. Some in the audience booed, writes Dana Goldstein at TAPPED:

When Rhee said, "There are a lot of people who benefit from our system being dysfunctional," a few voices raised in the crowd, booing. "That's not true!" a woman shouted. But Rhee continued, referring obliquely to her long-running contract dispute with the Washington Teachers' Union over merit pay and tenure. "People who keep their jobs. People who keep their contracts."

Rhee should know. She's the one handing out the jobs and contracts.

Oh yes, did anyone mention--McCain's a maverick?

'Equal access to education has been gained'--McCain

“Education has become the civil rights issue of this century,” says John McCain, proving once again that even the finest of words can be turned into meaningless clichés in the mouths of demagogues.

"The bunch who brought us 'No Child Left Behind' now claims that education is 'the civil rights issue of this century,'" says Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington.

McCain says that the battle for educational equity is over. He wants to put it behind us and replace it with vouchers, privately-managed charters, watering down of teacher quality and certification standards, imposition of merit pay, as well as an end to collective-bargaining rights and union contracts.

Here's all that in McCainspeak:

“Equal access to public education has been gained. But what is the value of access to a failing school? We need to shake up failed school bureaucracies with competition, empower parents with choice, remove barriers to qualified instructors, attract and reward good teachers, and help bad teachers find another line of work.”

What demagogue McCain won’t do is mention NCLB, which he voted for but now hides from. While most Republican leaders, like McCain’s top ed advisor Lisa Graham Keegan, still back NCLB testing madness, McCain won’t mention it during the campaign as he tries to distance himself from Bush. I can’t really blame him.

But Sec. Spellings assures us that McCain is not one of the old-line libertarian conservatives who used to rail against the DOE and big government. No matter than many Republicans oppose NCLB-driven federal involvement in local schools, they still appreciate the billions in ed dollars that were funneled to like-minded education contractors over the past eight years.

“I think he’s more a different kind of Republican than he is the federalist, abolish-the-Department-of-Education kind of Republican,” the secretary said in an interview in Minneapolis. “He voted for No Child Left Behind. He’s been supportive since.

Oh yes, and did anyone mention that McCain is a maverick? Remember, he "reached across party lines" when he signed on to Education Equality Project (EEP), the Democrats’ version of the Ownership Society.