Ownership Society politics

Rhee-form nightmare

Sunday’s Washington Post (“Overhauling D.C. School Overcome by Violence”) offers a snapshot of Michelle Rhee’s nightmarish version of top-down school reform. Hart Middle School in one of D.C. poorest and most isolated communities, has fallen victim, not only to the district’s inequitable distribution of school resources, under-funding, and under-staffing, but to Rhee’s shock-and-awe reform policies as well.

Interviews with teachers, parents, students and police paint a picture of a troubled school that, far from hitting bottom with its placement on "restructuring" status, has fallen into an even deeper hole. It is overenrolled and understaffed and lacks the extra academic support promised by Rhee, teachers said.

Another reason why Klein shouldn't be Sec. of Ed.

New York Times:

New York City officials violated state environmental law when they began building a school complex on a contaminated site in the South Bronx without first coming up with a plan to ensure that students and the public would not be exposed to pollutants in the future, a state judge has ruled.

Hunting down liberals in academia

Wing-nut think tanks like AEI continue rooting out university liberals and left-wingers. But researchers disagree with their basic premise:

No one disputes that American academia is decidedly more liberal than the rest of the population, or that there is a detectable shift to the left among students during their college years. Still, both studies in the peer-reviewed PS, for example, found that changes in political ideology could not be attributed to proselytizing professors but rather to general trends among that age group.

Despite crisis, Gates can't spend it fast enough

The global economy may be going to hell but the Gates Foundation says it’s got so much money, it has trouble spending it fast enough. An installment on Warren Buffet’s massive contribution to the fund, will bring in $1.8 billion that must be spent in 2009. Still, Gates only gives away 5% of its assets each year and with the other 95% invested in the market, the foundation is bound to feel the effects of the downturn. The Seattle Times reports that:

Next year's installment of Buffett's gift could reflect the market downturn, since the gift comes in the form of Berkshire Hathaway B shares. On Friday those shares were down by about 18 percent from the same time last year. The value of the Gates Foundation endowment was also down to $35.1 billion in October from $35.9 billion in June.

With school district budgets collapsing, power philanthropists like Gates, Broad and Walton will most likely increase their influence over public education policy and leverage their control over school reform projects even as their investments fail in other areas.

There's the smell of pachouli in the air

Union hater Mike Pachouli (I know that's not how he spells it) can't stand the idea that teachers and their unions were an essential part of Obama's successful campaign.

When my brother Fred at PREAPrez writes about "the thousands of union teachers from solid blue states like New York and Illinois that spent their weekends in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin and turned those swing states blue..." Pachouli sneers and calls it an example of the "corrosive power" of the unions. Then he has the chutzpah to give Obama an ultimatum:

Are you going to side with Mr. Klonksy and his friends? Or are you going to deliver change we can believe in—including in k-12 education reform?

Is Pachouli really threatening Obama? Is he really saying to the President-elect, it's them or us? Not too bright a move for this badly defeated McCain/Palin hack who thinks that teachers having collective bargaining rights represents the greatest threat to all mankind . That remark, plus the misspelling of KLONSKY, makes Pachouli fresh meat for union prez Fred. My bro, ever the school teacher, ices the former Bush bureaucrat with a simile:

Mike Petrilli, former Bush Department of Education official advising Obama about schools and teachers is like having Dick Cheney advising Obama on Constitutional rights.

Only problem is that Palin-like Pachouli probably thinks that's a compliment.

Worst possible choice for Sec. of Ed.? Joel Klein

My mailbox has been bombarded this week with emails from educators and teacher groups in New York. They are panic stricken over the possibility that N.Y. Chancellor Joel Klein may get Obama’s top education job. The NYT has been touting Klein, who has strong personal connections to Democratic big wigs like Caroline Kennedy and John Podesta. The Times makes it sound like opposition to a Klein appointment is coming solely from the teachers union. But I’m hearing it from school reformers, parents and educators of all stripes. While I was in North Carolina last week, at the Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum, Gotham teachers were all talking the same smack about Klein.

Right now, I don’t have any particular favorite for the job. But my hunch is that Obama’s transition team will recommend a governor or high-profile public school advocate, someone who is fairly neutral on the hot-button and wedge issues and someone who would use the bully pulpit to support public education and adequate funding.

I can’t even see issues such as standardized testing, privatization, vouchers, charter schools, etc… being high on Obama’s agenda in his first year in office when a New Deal for economic recovery and job creation is key. I am hoping he will ultimately support some kind of New Deal for Public Education, to keep the nation’s school districts from going belly-up and to finally ditch No Child Left Behind (or at least it’s most viral aspects). I’d like to see the Broader, Bolder Coalition unite behind something like that from outside the DOE.

Joel Klein would be the worse choice possible for Sec. of Ed. Why? First of all, he is an extremely divisive force—not what Obama needs right now. His appointment would be a pure power play coming from Mayor Bloomberg and the Ownership Society wing of the Democratic Party, pro-voucher Republicrats like DFER and the conservative think tankers, like Finn and Petrilli at Fordham.

Klein, along with Michelle Rhee in D.C., and Paul Vallas in New Orleans, has been a leading force for privatization of public school management, union busting, discrimination against special-ed and ELL immigrant students, and a defender of the worst aspects of NCLB. He is the main opponent of the Bolder, Broader group and his appointment could turn the DOE into a target for parents’ and community groups’ protests for years to come (maybe that’s a good thing). It would also cause a big rift with current Obama ally Randi Weingarten and the teacher unions.

Does a new Obama administration need all that? And why he would do anything to strengthen Bloomberg’s hand right now, I can’t even imagine.

A story in Saturday’s New York Times describes more Bloomberg/Klein failed policies in the district.

On a recent Saturday morning, as hundreds of anxious students lined up for the test outside the stately stone-gray facade of Brooklyn Tech, parents and students attributed the racial disparities to a lack of private tutoring, subpar middle schools that do not expose students to test material, transportation problems, cultural differences and a simple lack of motivation on the part of some students.

This despite, millions being spent by them for rigged evaluations and misleading PR. Remember the "Texas Miracle" scandal that plagued Rod Paige's term as Bush's secretary of ed? All in all, I can’t think of one good reason, political or educational, to have someone like Klein running the DOE. Can you?

For more reasons to oppose a Klein appointment see:

http://michaelklonsky.blogspot.com/2008/08/why-not-test-em-in-womb.html

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-6z6IhP08cqXp9kfshYQPv87gCfJyFg--?cq=1&p=1697

http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-6z6IhP08cqXp9kfshYQPv87gCfJyFg--?cq=1&p=1692

African Studies Association Teachers’ Workshop

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The African Studies Association (ASA) will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first annual meeting in historic Chicago, IL.

As part of the larger program, we will feature scholars, artists and community activists from across the country who will facilitate panels, workshops and discussions tailored especially to educators. It is a one-day (8am -4:30 pm) professional development event and is open to educators from Head Start to higher Ed.

In addition to learning about innovative ways to incorporate Africa into their curricula teachers will receive a CD full of teaching resources designed by Columbia University, a “How Big Is Africa Poster?” with a comprehensive curriculum guide and a text for use in the classroom, Africa: A Biography of the Continent. Lunch is also included.

Venue: Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers 301 East North Water Street Chicago, IL 60611
Date: Saturday, November 15, 2008
Time: 8 am-4:30 pm
Registration: $25
http://condor.depaul.edu/~fdemissi/asa2008
Credit: Eligible for professional development credit (CPDU)

For more information:
Toni Pressley-Sanon
University of Wisconsin-Madison
toni.sanon@gmail.com
(608) 265-9151
Tage Biswalo
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
biswalo@illinois.edu
(217) 244-5456

Mathews comes back down to earth on KIPP

The Washington Post's Jay Mathews has, by his own admission, gone ga-ga over KIPP charter schools. Even the facts couldn't move him--until now. His past columns have been filled with hyperbole and he has referred to KIPP as "a miracle" and the "best schools in America." But researcher Jeff Henig has finally brought Mathews down to earth. Henig seems to have convinced Mathews that KIPP's high attrition rates artificially boosted the schools' test scores by eliminating low-scoring kids and those with behavioral problems.

Mathews carefully concedes:

Thank goodness then for the cautious, balanced analysis provided by Henig, an expert on urban education reform and charter schools at Columbia's Teachers College. He agrees with KIPP officials that they have not been selecting just an upper crust of higher-scoring and better motivated kids for their schools, despite suggestions to the contrary. But he also points to a possible flaw that leads some students to return to their regular public schools before completing the KIPP middle school program, perhaps because they find the work too hard and the days too long. Their departure may distort reports of KIPP gains. Turnover of KIPP teachers, he says, is also high and creates doubt about whether gains can be sustained.

The funny thing is, Henig wasn't telling Mathews anything he didn't already know. KIPP's push-out of low-scoring kids is old news. Mathews even read the same critique of KIPP last May when he reviewed the book, Keeping the Promise: The Debate Over Charter Schools.

Henig must have an antedote for Kool-Aid.

At the Fall Forum

I'm down here in DEMOCRATIC North Carolina (can you believe it?), in Charlotte, to be exact, at the annual Coalition of Essential Schools Fall Forum. I try to come to the Fall Forum every year, to touch base with old friends and hear some good speeches and presentations. But this is the smallest turnout ever--under 1,000 it looks like.

Why? Look no further than the growing economic crisis, making it impossible for many teachers to travel to professional meetings or professional development sights. Budget cuts have led to travel bans on teachers, students and administrators. Progressive school reform organizations like CES, will have to find new ways to get their message out, raise funds, and organize themselves and their base.

Many will close shop and/or go to work directly for the power philanthropists--Gates, Broad, Walton, etc... Others will restrict themselves to local work, leaving the national field to the few large, well-capitalized, professional development companies who turn teachers into delivery clerks.

******

Nice opening event last night with a student choral group from a local high school doing classical pieces in Italian and then closing with a moving gospel rendition of "I've been in the storm so long." Seeing this diverse group of singers brought me back in time to 1968, the last time I visited Charlotte, when the very idea of black and white North Carolina students attending high school and singing together would have been dangerous and subversive.

The keynote was delivered by the great Chicano writer/poet/community activist Luis Rodriguez ("Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.") who held himself up as a living example of why we cannot write off any kids.

I led a discussion this morning on "Public school reform meets the ownership society" and did a book signing. I'll be on another panel tomorrow morning with Deb Meier and Ann Cook, discussing the impact of mayoral control of big city school districts.

******

On the plane from Detroit, I'm reading my complimentary copy of the Financial Times. The headline on the election story gets me all teary-eyed: "Death knell for 'Southern Strategy.'"

Known as the “southern strategy”, the covert racial appeal to alienated working-class whites helped to deliver seven out of the last 10 presidential elections to Republicans. On Tuesday night, Barack Obama’s emphatic victory brought the southern strategy to a close – and with it may also have ended his party’s torturous 40-year struggle to win back the loyalty of the US mainstream.

McCarthy blames profs for the Obama youth vote

Andrew ("The Other McCarthy") McCarthy blames the "tenured radicals" in the academy for Tuesday's massive youth vote. It seems we teachers indoctrinated millions of kids with notions of participatory democracy. Gee, thanks McCarthy. We tried our best. But I think you give far to0 little credit to Bush/Cheney, their eternal-war, end-of-hope policies and Bush-onomics which collapses the future of every young person in America. Oh, and you get some credit as well for being one of McCain's attack-dog bloggers who tried to keep the kids home on election day with your Swiftboating tactics but despite yourself, only gave them more energy to drive the Obama landslide.

See how they run

According to the Washington Times, McCain’s people are now blaming Palin for the failed Bill Ayers strategy. “She went rogue,” they claim. Like rats from a sinking ship they are denying culpability. Are they afraid of an Ayers suit, a reader asks? You betcha.

They're blaming stock drop on Obama

The market took yet another dive today. So who’s to blame this time? He won’t take office for a couple of months, but the latest dip is all the fault of President-elect Obama, says Business Week's Sara Lepro. It seems that Wall Street would have felt more bullish with a white guy in the White House. If the market yo-yos up tomorrow, let’s see if Obama gets the credit.

No more radio silence

Teacher educator and small-schools advocate Bill Ayers is particularly glad this campaign is over. He never dreamed he would play a central role in it or be used as a foil in McCain’s guilt-by-association Swiftboating assault on Obama. But until yesterday’s elections, Bill admirably chose to keep radio silence. Now that he's no longer a campaign issue, he’s speaking out and has plenty to say. Check out this thoughtful and somewhat contrite New Yorker interview and this piece in the Washington Post where Bill says of his Weatherman days:

"I wish I'd been wiser," he said. "I wish I'd been more effective. I wish I'd been more unifying. I wish I'd been more principled."

Words for all of us to live by.

Obama’s first 100 days

Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, Andrew McCarthy and a host of wing-nut bloggers all claim that I’ve been palin’ around with Barack Obama. Now, I wish it were true. If it were, here are a couple of things I would put on his radar screen for his first 100 days in office.

Hey Barack, my friend--stop this

Catherine Gewertz at Edweek, “Urban Districts Urged to Prepare for Immigration Raids,” reports that horrible damage is being done to immigrant students as more and more of their parents are swept up in raids by the INS.

Rosa Maria Castañeda, a research associate at the Urban Institute, a Washington-based think tank that co-authored a report last year detailing the impact on children of three large-scale workplace raids, said that when such arrests occur, children often find themselves at school or day care with no one to pick them up, or alone at home with no adult supervision.

And this...

Colleen Shaddox, writing for Miller-McCune, “Juvenile Justice and the Theater of the Absurd,” makes a strong case against trying kids as adults:

About 200,000 minors enter the adult criminal justice system each year. Research on minors sent to the adult system says that they are more likely to re-offend and escalate into violent behavior than their peers who go to the juvenile system, where rehabilitative services are far more extensive. We also know that youths in adult prisons are at high risk for suicide and for victimization by adult inmates.

More agenda points to follow.

Grant Park hangover

Still to numb to blog this morning. We (the whole family, neighbors, friends from all over Chicago) were watching the incredible numbers come in on the jumbo screen, then dancing with the Obamas, shedding tears of joy, hugging friends and complete strangers. It's been a long time coming...

Good riddance McCain/Bush/Neocons

100,000 in Virginia

So long Studs

Nice morning at the Old Town School

A few dozen of us stayed after class for what's called Second Session. We strummed, fiddled and sang the Woodie Guthrie dust bowl anthem, So Long, It's Been Good To Know You, to honor the passing of Studs Terkel.

This dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home, And I got to be driftin' along."

We followed that up with Green Day's Good Riddance, sung to Bush in advance of the big celebration tomorrow. Somehow the party won't be as good without Studs.

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life.

From my old friend Najee

Najee Ali and I grew up together on the streets of North Philly back in the 50s. His name was Melvin back then and he was the only kid who could beat me in a race on the schoolyard at McIntyre Elementary. We reconnected after 50 years.

Today he sent me this video.

Thanks Najee. I'll raise a glass to you Tuesday night.

'My own voting experience'

James Forman, Jr. writes:

I went to vote today, in person absentee because I'll be knocking on doors in VA on election day. Washington DC, with our 3 electoral votes, is hardly in doubt, but still I couldn't miss it.

After about 15 minutes of waiting in line I got up to the desk and gave my form. "James Forman," said the clerk reading my paper. Any relation to "Dr. James Forman?" Um . . . "do you mean a medical doctor," I asked, not wanting to be presumptuous. "No, the civil rights leader," he responded. After I told him that was my dad he broke into a big smile and told me that they had worked together for DC statehood. Then he went back to his computer and plugged my name in. "Do you live on Harvard Street," he asked. I paused. That was where my dad had lived, and it never occured to me that he might still be in their database. My heart held for a second as I heard my dad's old address, the apt I had been to so many times. I finally responded, "no, that's where my dad lived." He hesistated when I said "lived," and I realized that he must not have known that my dad died a few years ago. When I told him, he shook his head and said he was sorry. I started to choke up, and trying to hold it together, I told him "I'm sorry too, he would have given anything to be standing next to me right now getting ready to vote in this election." He looked me in the eye and said, "but you are voting for him."

Then I got home and saw this video sent by my friend Yodit, and it made me think of my dad, and others like him around the country:

So many stories like this. Share yours. Love, James