Braving sub-zero temps to stop the charter invasion

At last night's vigil

A SmallTalk Salute goes out to the dozens of protesters who demonstrated their commitment last night by holding an all-night vigil and sleeping out in sub-zero temps, outside CPS headquarters. They, along with hundreds of others, will pack today's board meeting to try and stop Rahm's hand pick board's vote for further charter expansion.

Another goes out to Wisconsin high school social studies teacher Al Levie, one of three recipients of a Martin Luther King Jr. humanitarian award. During a celebration honoring the late civil rights leader, Al refused to accept the award from Rep. Paul Ryan, saying, “I can’t in good conscience accept this award, as a humanitarian, Paul Ryan stands for everything I don’t believe in.”

After Ryan spoke, Levie criticized the congressman’s policies before being walked off the stage. Levie had earlier stated that he would like to see collective bargaining restored in Wisconsin, fair immigration reform and a fair tax system among other suggestions.

“Paul Ryan had no business at a Martin Luther King event, it’s totally hypocritical. On the one hand he votes to slash health care, while on the other hand, King dedicated his life and he died for it — for people to have adequate healthcare, to have adequate jobs.”

And a third salute goes out to  Ald. Nick Sposato (36th), and members of the City Council's Progressive Caucus who led an attempt to delay the board vote last week, but had their efforts were derailed. Sposato called it, saying that CPS was playing "bull---- games" with its capacity figures, and pointed to how there are four CPS high schools already within a mile and a half of the proposed Noble site.  Community resistance has focused on a new Noble Charter high school set for 5357 W. Grand Ave., across the street from Prosser Career Academy.

An investigation by the parent group Raise Your Hand has discovered that 47% of CPS charter and contract schools have student populations below the CPS threshold for ideal enrollment. This equates to 50 schools with nearly 11,000 seats sitting empty. The analysis also reveals a decline in overall CPS enrollment of 3,000 students this academic year. Despite this drop, the Chicago Board of Education could approve as many as 31 new charters over the next two years.

Prosser community resists charter invasion

Protest at the site of new Noble Charter school across the street from Prosser High School. 

The community knows the game may be rigged against them. The pro-forma community meetings are a sham with the process being run and controlled by a corporate-funded pro-charter group, Stand For Children. But in the face of all this, school communities and parent groups are determined to roll back the charter invasion and defend their public schools.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The latest round of charter school expansion in Chicago has been met with a long string of protests by parents and community leaders who question Chicago Public Schools' claims that it is pushing charters primarily for neighborhoods where classrooms are overcrowded.

On Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Education is set to consider 17 new charter campuses. Chicago Public Schools officials won't make public their recommendations on the proposals until the board meeting, district spokesman Joel Hood said. Earlier, 22 new charter proposals were submitted, but charter operators withdrew some of them.

On Monday, a coalition of anti-charter community groups called Communities United for Quality Education protested outside the site of a new charter school proposed by the Noble Network of Charter Schools, a favorite of Mayor Rahm Emanuel's that operates 14 high schools across the city, including one named after his pal, Bruce Rauner.

The proposed school is across the street from Prosser High School on the Northwest Side, and protesters fear the Noble campus would lead to an enrollment decline at the district-run school.

"This is just another indication that the mayor and nonelected school board have an aggressive agenda for charter expansion to a point that CPS will create rationales like overcrowding relief that they will then ignore a few months later," said Demian Kogan of the Albany Park Neighborhood Council. "It's clear they just threw out a rationale that they didn't care to follow."

Kogan's group did a cost analysis that indicates district start-up costs for 17 charter schools would be $21 million next year.

SOUTH SIDE CPS MOM posts her list of 9 Things The Mayor Doesn't Want You to Know About Charter Expansion in Chicago.

What if we stopped believing what we're told about charters? What would happen if CPS parents stopped buying the status quo and started asking questions instead? What if everybody knew the things that Rahm Emanuel doesn't really want you to know?

It's a pretty good list. Check it out.

Another community protest is scheduled this afternoon in the Austin community, organized by Action Now.

More from the 'bottom of the barrel'

While teachers in America often come from the bottom of the academic barrel and are disproportionately teaching students from disadvantaged backgrounds, Duncan said, teachers in South Korea are selected from the top of the class and are rewarded for working with low-income students. -- U.S. News

In fairness to Duncan, he didn't actually use the words "bottom of the barrel". He said that a significant proportion of new teachers come from "the from the bottom third of their college class." Same difference as far as I can tell.

Duncan shares his outlook on teaching with those at the Council on Foreign Relations or at the World Bank, who view public education primarily in the context of global economic and military competition. For Duncan, the role of schools is to provide the "human capital" for American corporations and the military industrial complex. He lays it all out in his 2011 remarks to the World Bank ("Improving Human Capital in a Competitive World—Education Reform in the United States”).

In many respects, our vision of reform has a great deal in common with the World Bank’s forthcoming Education Strategy for 2020. We share your commitment to results—to accelerating the acquisition of skills and knowledge. We share your commitment to cradle-to-career reform for students. 

I love your credo “Invest early. Invest smartly. Invest for all.” 

In class last night, many of my grad students expressed their disappointment, dismay, anger over Duncan's latest debasement of the teaching profession. One compared it to the old adage, "those who can't do, teach."

I'm not sure about the origins of that one. It supposedly comes from George Bernard Shaw's Man and Superman.

Bob: I'm so discouraged. My writing teacher told me my novel is hopeless. Jane: Don't listen to her, Bob. Remember: those who can, do; those who can't, teach.

Many of us can remember the pain inflicted by a discouraging teacher, parent or friend who told us to give up on a dream (mine was playing in the major leagues). But what could be more discouraging to students with dreams of becoming a teacher one day, than the remarks by the Sec. of Education?

I asked my students, who I would match up intellectually with Duncan or any of his fellow Harvard grads, isn't teaching "doing"?

The students read a N.Y Times Op-Ed piece on John Dewey's vision of learning, "Learning as Freedom" by Michael Roth, who asks,

Who wants to attend school to learn to be “human capital”? Who aspires for their children to become economic or military resources? Dewey had a different vision.

Perhaps we need to restate Shaw's adage this way:

Those who can't teach become sideline critics, corporat reformers, or D.O.E. bureaucrats.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Amiri Baraka's son Ras, delivers his eulogy (Video).

Ras Baraka 

"Every nurse that would come in the room he said, 'Hey, my son is running for mayor. He came to the hospital with a bag of (political) literature." -- NJ.com

Michael Eric Dyson 

We’ve deliberately dismembered him [Dr. Martin Luther King] through manipulation of his memory. And those of us who have failed to see his radical challenge, in deference to a vision of King that is one of a universalist, that everybody can attach to — which was true, of course — but that wasn’t the full story. -- Salon, How we get Dr. King Wrong

Obama's NSA Speech

Meanwhile, totalitarian states like East Germany offered a cautionary tale of what could happen when vast, unchecked surveillance turned citizens into informers, and persecuted people for what they said in the privacy of their own homes. In fact, even the United States proved not to be immune to the abuse of surveillance. And in the 1960s, government spied on civil rights leaders and critics of the Vietnam War. -- NY Times 

Rev. James Meeks

Meeks said he’d never heard of Rauner before Eden Martin, President of the Civic Committee, called on Rauner’s behalf about five years ago to request a meeting. So he Googled the name. “When I saw how much money he was worth, I said, ‘Sure, let the guy come on,’” laughed Meeks. -- Sun-Times

Joanne Barkan's latest 

...it’s both perverse and predictable that Philanthropy magazine titled its spring 2013 cover story “They Shall Overcome...” Philanthro-ed-reformers have been chanting the mantra “Education is the civil rights issue of our time” for years, and they’ve appointed themselves leaders of the reform movement. The largest stakeholders in public education—students, educators, and parents—have no role to play except as recipients of donor-designed reforms. When they question the charitable largesse, they become part of the opposition that the philanthropists shall overcome. They shall overcome, not we. Solidarity doesn’t figure in. -- We They Shall Overcome

PRESS RELEASE: NPE NATIONAL CONFERENCE

Network for Public Education 2014 National Conference 

Robin Hiller | Executive Director | robin@networkforpubliceducation.org | (520) 668-4634

PRESS RELEASE

January 19, 2014

The Network for Public Education has announced a national gathering of public education activists. The organization’s first National Conference will take place at The Thompson Conference Center at the University of Texas at Austin on March 1 & 2, 2014 - the Saturday and Sunday before SXSWedu. The conference will feature more than twenty panels and workshops, keynote speakers, and networking opportunities for education advocates from across the United States.

The NPE 2014 National Conference will feature a keynote address by education historian and best-selling author (and NPE President) Diane Ravitch. Chicago Teachers Union President, Karen Lewis and Texas school district Superintendent John Kuhn will deliver a joint conference address. A panel addressing the Common Core will feature American Federation of Teachers President, Randi Weingarten, blogger and education activist Anthony Cody, writer and researcher, Mercedes Schneider, teacher and blogger Jose Luis Vilson, Chicago teacher Paul Horton, and early-childhood education expert Geralyn Bywater McLaughlin.

The Network for Public Education was formed by Ravitch in 2013 and has become a prominent voice in the education reform debate. During the November 2013 elections, NPE rallied support for successful school board candidates in Bridgeport, CT, Seattle and Atlanta. The 2014 National Conference will be an opportunity for NPE to coordinate its network of education activists from across the United States in preparation for the 2014 elections.

“We are bringing together allies from around the country who really know what is happening on the ground in their own states and communities. One of our main goals in forming our network was to create a means to support candidates willing to defend public education,” said Anthony Cody, an NPE co-founder with Ravitch. “By gathering together, we hope to build real momentum, making 2014 the year we turn the tide in the fight for our schools.”

The NPE Conference will bring together leading activists in education from across the country and will feature some of the nation's most dynamic school administrators, such as Montgomery County Superintendent Joshua Starr, and New York's Principal of the Year Carol Burris. Parent activists will include Leonie Haimson of New York, Karran Harper Royal from New Orleans and Helen Gym of Philadelphia. Teachers will be well represented, with panels that include Michelle Gunderson and Xian Barrett of Chicago, Kipp Dawson of Pittsburgh, and Phyllis Bush of Indiana. A panel on "Framing Our Message" will include Jeff Bryant, Sabrina Stevens and Bertis Downs. Bob Schaeffer of FairTest will be joined by the leader of the Seattle MAP test boycott, Jesse Hagopian in discussing the movement to push back high stakes tests. Student activists will be well represented as well, with leaders from the Providence Student Union, and Stephanie Rivera and Hannah Nguyen, founders of Students United for Public Education. This year the movement to opt out of high stakes tests is picking up steam and United Opt Out co-founder Peggy Robertson will share UOO’s latest plans. Professors Sonya Horsford, Paul Thomas, and Julian Vasquez Heilig will discuss the latest research that sheds light on which reforms are truly working to serve our students, and Tim Slekar will discuss the role and future of teacher education. Investigative journalists Jason Stanford, Joanne Barkan and Mercedes Schneider will share ideas and tips from their work uncovering the truth about corporate education reform and destructive philanthropy. Veteran educators Deborah Meier and Mike Klonsky bring decades of experience as activists to panels on organizing resistance and building movements. University of Texas scholars Angela Valenzuela and Deb Palmer will discuss issues related to English Language Learners and high stakes testing. Recently elected school board candidate Sue Peters will be there to share lessons from her victory against well-financed corporate reformers in Seattle.

On her popular blog, NPE President, Diane Ravitch remarked on the importance of coming together for the purpose of strengthening our education system.

“Our movement demands a positive agenda for change based on love of learning, respect for educators, and dedication to the healthy development of children as good people,” Ravitch said. “We hope you will be there and join us as we review the status and condition of our movement to reclaim public education and decide what we should do to grow stronger in the future.” 

For more information about the Network for Public Education 2014 National Conference, go to http://networkforpubliceducation.org/conference. Registration is currently open and the website contains information about the speakers, panels, accommodations and travel.

Despite next week's sham hearings, new CPS charters a done deal

This morning I received this email from my former fellow Prosser coach, Jeff Bates.

Mike,

What do you think?

I'm sure you are aware of the RFPs for Intrinsic and Noble Charter Schools being considered by CPS at the upcoming Board meeting on January 22nd. 

Jeff Bates pics

On January 6th the demolition fences were put up around the proposed site of the New Noble School, directly across the street corner from Prosser Career Academy HIgh School (1,500 student enrollment) and within blocks of 6 other elementary schools with over 4,000 students enrolled-Hanson Park, Prieto, Northwest Middle, Belmont Cragin, and Christopher House. Definitely a SAFETY and traffic concern to residents, parents, students, and the Commissioner at Area 25 Police Headquarters, two blocks away.

Construction begins

The LSCs at the existing schools were not invited to nor made aware of the Noble sponsored Community outreach meetings. Residents of the community North of Grand we're not informed of the project as we'll. Prosser lost $1.2 million in budget cuts this past summer. There are 4 High Schools within 1.5 miles- North Grand, Steinmetz, Kelvyn Park, and Foreman. Not one is overcrowded and they have endured budget cuts. Very Interesting to say the least. On a recent visit- "We are the  General Contractors- tearing the building down. They are putting up a new charter school"- rep from Norcon shared on January 10, 2014---BEFORE BOARD APPROVAL OF RFP January 22nd. Proper procedure and Protocol? Or business as usual with the haves vs the have-nots?

Over 20 years of educating, motivating, and inspiring students to do their best and follow the proper procedures means little when the POWERS that be are not kept to the same standard.

Please share with all interested in Our Children, Our Schools, Our Communities, Our City, and Our WORLD.

 Sincerely,
 Jeffrey S. Bates

My response:

Jeff,
Of course it's a done deal (See this morning's S-T and my blog). Doesn't mean it can't be stopped. Still worth putting up a fight to make it difficult for them. Also to mobilize the community for next election.
Mike

DATA ERRATA

Quote from CPS IG Jim Sullivan -- "The system has incentivized how performance is evaluated based on data, and much of that data is created and can be manipulated at the school level."  

Rahm & charter landlord Jenkins

SHOCKING!
I'm shocked, just shocked to hear that Rahm's pals are the landlords for the new proposed charter schools.

The Rev. Charles Jenkins, its pastor, touts on his church’s website how he “filled a key role” on Emanuel’s transition team when the mayor was elected in 2011. Jenkins gave the invocation at Emanuel’s swearing-in. He is an Emanuel appointee to the City Colleges of Chicago board and a board member of the private group New Schools for Chicago, which helps fund new charter schools.

BACKING QUINN?
How bad does Quinn have to be to offend AFL-CIO leaders? Gov. not only signed unconstitutional pension-busting bill, he bragged, "I was born for this."

And the nod for Quinn should put to rest the constant media speculation that all of organized labor is angry with him - although you gotta figure that AFSCME and the teachers weren’t too pleased with this move. -- Rich Miller, Capital Fax

They not only endorsed Quinn, they backed Republican  Judy Baar-Topinka for state comptroller. Topinka supported the pension-busting bill. A slap in the face to Sheila Simon who broke with Quinn and opposed the pension deal.

DINNER CHAT WITH RAUNER

 As might be expected, he celebrated their [charter schools] high test scores, and I responded that they get those scores by excluding students with serious disabilities and English language learners, as well as pushing out those whose scores are not good enough. Surprisingly, he didn’t disagree. His reaction: so what? “They are not my problem. Charters exist to save those few who can be saved, not to serve all kinds of kids.” My response: What should our society do about the kids your charters don’t want? His response: I don’t know and I don’t care. They are not my problem. -- Diane Ravitch's Blog

The view from the 'bottom of the academic barrel'

Fred Klonsky's view of our Ed Sec.

Here's how things are looking from down here at the bottom of the academic barrel.

For one thing, there seems to be lots of energy and activity on the organizational front. The Network For Public Education is holding a national meeting in Austin, March 1-2. CTU Pres. Karen Lewis and Supt. John Kuhn, (Perrin-Whitt Independent School District in Texas) are the keynoters. It's probably worth the trip just to hear these two powerhouse speakers. The inclusion of AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten as a speaker has caused a stir. But I'm happy to see her there. I just got done having a scuffle with her on Twitter about the union's past wavering on the issue of teacher evaluation and hope dialogue continues.

I'm wondering about the purpose of holding another national conference and forming yet another national organization. I'm also wondering about who and what issues are going to be left in and who is left out of the process and how to keep the whole thing from blowing up in sectarian warfare?

But NPE staffer Anthony Cody tells me that NPE founder and leader, Diane Ravitch wants to build an alternative to corporate-reform groups like Stand For Children and others who have been using big corporate and foundation dollars to back anti-union, pro-privatization candidates in school board and municipal elections. This new group, I'm told, will organize political support to progressive and anti-privatization candidates running for office around the country. Not a bad idea.

One of the things missing from a cursory look at the agenda is any mention of so-called "pension reform" which is a central piece in the corporate reformers assault on teachers, all public employees and their unions. I hope this gets straightened out before March.

I've been asked to organize a panel on Movement Building and I will. I'll bring in a few local Texas organizers and union activists to help me out. Hope to see you there. Austin's one of my favorite places.

Then comes announcements that two other new organizations are forming, with similar purposes. The first, right here in Chicago by the CTU is seen as an Independent Political Organization (IPO). This has been sorely missing in the city as a vehicle to organize against the power of the Rahm/Madigan Machine in the upcoming elections.

The second, Integrity in Education, was formed in December out in Colorado and is led by teacher, writer, activist Sabrina Stevens. Sabrina, who I greatly admire, is heavily quoted in Josh Eidelson's excellent piece in Salon.com, The influence of Michelle Rhee and Chris Christie: Education reformers’ revolving door.

My skeptical half is muttering under breath, "Just what we need, some more new organizations" and humming that old Hank Williams Jr. tune, The Coalition to Ban Coalitions. My better half is excited about the prospects of growth, struggle and unity-building.

Another Duncan Doughnut

"Teachers in America often come from the bottom of the academic barrel..." -- Arne Duncan

Yes, he really said it, and despite his inevitable pull-back once his handlers get hold of him, he really means it. This Harvard jock, who never taught a day in his life, can't open his mouth, it seems,without demeaning teachers (or "white suburban moms" for that matter).

I'm not sure what the "academic barrel" is. I think he means the state universities and colleges of education, like the ones where I have taught for the past few decades, and where thousands of great teachers are produced under the tutelage of some of the country's greatest education professors and scholars.

To Duncan, the top of the "barrel" would probably mean the Ivy Leaguers like himself, who become the 5-week TFA wonders; the ones who, on average, flounder through their first 2 years in inner-city schools before fleeing for greener pastures.

Pension wars and Moore

Puerto Rican teachers strike: "No somos criminales, somos maestros." "We're not criminals."

The attacks on public worker pensions, especially teachers' pensions, has become a centerpiece of corporate reform strategy aimed at degrading the teaching profession, eroding public space and undermining union contracts. It's a response to the growing public-sector debt crisis that avoids taxing the corporate sector and puts the entire burden on the retired (or soon to be retired) public sector workers. But with it has come with growing resistance across the country and now in Puerto Rico. Since December 19, members of Puerto Rico's teachers union and their supporters have been protesting both inside the island's Senate chamber and outside its Capitol, including a 2-day strike, against the so-called "pension reform" legislation advocated by governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

Look who's defending Rauner

No surprise here. It's the Trib's Eric Zorn. He identifies with the Republican billionaire's clout problems.

I didn't have to play that game with my elder son, who easily tested into Payton in 2004, but I can't blame many of those who did. "Nothin' wrong" with asking for a favor, after all, when favors were going to be doled out anyway.

 Was it seemly for Bruce Rauner to then drop a quarter-million dollar donation on Payton Prep Initiative for Education in December 2009? Yes. Given the timing, not just seemly but generous, creditable and consistent with his charitable outreach to schools.

Does Rauner have anything to apologize for, other than dropping his "g's" to try to sound folksy? No. He didn't break the rules in place at the time and no one broke them on his behalf.

Has Ald. Joe Moore become a complete lap dog for the Mayor?

Yes he has. He ran as a progressive, but now has become an enemy of the teachers union and the leading Rahm apologist in the City Council. Moore argued Tuesday that City Hall spent $7.2 million on salt after the New Year’s Eve storm that preceded a polar plunge — and “wasted” tons of it — because it was trying to meet the “unrealistic” expectations of a demanding Chicago electorate. He may be right about the salt, but not about blaming Chicagoans' for their expectations. His was a conscious diversion from the real issue that has neighborhood folks so pissed off. While downtown and Boule Miche were plowed clean enough to eat off the streets, neighborhoods were barely touched. Dangerous potholes are everywhere in the neighborhoods. None downtown. It had nothing to do with salt. 

Congrats to ALEC, Brookings, Gates... on their Bunkum Awards 

“Congratulations, Brookings! You just won the Bunkum’s Grand Prize for shoddiest educational research for 2013.” -- NEPC

It's silly to pretend Common Core is not a curriculum

"The Common Core has become a rallying cry for fringe groups that claim it is a scheme for the federal government to usurp state and local control of what students learn. An op-ed in the New York Times called the Common Core "a radical curriculum." It is neither radical nor a curriculum." -- Arne Duncan

Well, Arne Duncan got it half-right. It's certainly not radical.

I half expect Duncan himself to slam me (call me "silly," a "suburban mom" or a "fringe group"?)  for writing this, but here goes.

Disinformation about the Common Core, coming straight from the D.O.E. and spread across a compliant media, includes the myths that standards are home-grown and that they are simply standards and NOT curriculum.

In an unusually long Huffington blog piece, ed  writer Joy Resmovitz reports:

Each state sets its own learning standards, and those get translated through thousands of districts and schools and teachers. The Core is supposed to unify this patchwork of efforts not only across states, but across the country. And contrary to popular belief, it's not a curriculum: School systems and teachers can choose their own instructional materials, as long as students know what the Core says they should know by year's end.

But curriculum is all about determining and deciding what's most worthwhile to teach and learn and how that teaching and learning takes place. What is most worthwhile to know and how and why it is to be taught? What literature will students be assigned? What textbooks, if any, will be purchased? Standards and assessment (testing) are certainly important parts of this complex and politicized curriculum landscape.

As we know, there are (and in a democratic society should be) divergent answers to these most fundamental curricular questions and hopefully, divergent voices, especially those of classroom teachers, providing those answers. But to pretend that there's this Great Wall separating standards from curriculum is absurd as every teacher and school administrator is finding out -- if they don't already know.

Resmovitz goes on in the very next paragraph, to contradict her and Duncan's "not curriculum" pronouncements.

Students will learn less content, but more in-depth, coherent and demanding content. In other words, students should know fewer things, but they should know them better. The Core encourages teachers to move away from memorization and to ask students to show their work. In math, it means emphasizing such things as learning fractions and fluency in arithmetic. In reading, it means more nonfiction texts -- recommendations range from historical speeches from Martin Luther King, Jr., and Winston Churchill to more instructional reads such as the Environmental Protection Agency's "Recommended Levels of Insulation" and FedViews, by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. 

Leaving aside for the moment, whether reading nonfictional texts is "more demanding" and "more in-depth" than reading Melville or Morrison, there's no denying that less fiction/more nonfiction texts is a curricular decision. And there's also little doubt that the massive testing regimen attached to CCCS drives curriculum decisions at the school level. And those tests, along with their aligned (possibly) textbooks, all come from the same tiny but powerful group of publishers, ie. Pearson and McGraw.

To imply, as Resmovitz does, that these decisions emerge locally, with no pressure to conform to corporate or D.O.E. political interests, is really silly. State supes may be able to change its name or even drop out of Common Core altogether (at great risk of losing federal funding), but Pearson's tests will still drive the curriculum.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

Roger Ailes (NYT)

Fox News Chief Exec. Roger Ailes 

“I’m walking around, and I feel just all this anger. I can’t figure out where it’s coming from.” -- NYT Sunday Book Review 

Eric Holder 

“A routine school disciplinary infraction should land a student in the principal’s office, not in a police precinct.” -- New York Times

Mark Anderson 

 Remind me again: Isn't Pat Quinn supposed to be a man of the people who chose Vallas because he had a “servant’s heart”? -- Ward Room

Historian Eric Foner 

 I'm certainly against this testing mania that's going on now where you can judge whether someone really understands history by their performance on a multiple-choice test. -- The Atlantic

Wendy Katten, director of Raise Your Hand 

What Chicago parents are lacking is the choice to send their child to a well-resourced neighborhood school with funding to provide a well-rounded education that their child can walk to without worrying about traveling unsafe distances. That choice is slipping away as the district aggressively disinvests in neighborhood schools. -- Crain's Chicago Business

James Merriman, N.Y. Charter School chief 

Said that while some charters were “not getting the job done” for special education students, the district schools’ attrition numbers were also “no great shakes.” [80% of children with special needs left charter schools within 3 years-M.K.]  -- New York Times

Mississippi, with strong Common Core and no unions, is losing Race To The Top

As long as we're racing to the top, let's take a look at how the race is going. The theory coming out of the D.O.E., the Gates Foundation and the think tanks is that implementing Common Core Standards is key to winning the race and that the main problem is "status-quo" teacher unions protecting bad teachers.

But according to the latest edition Education Week's Quality Counts report, Mississippi, with no teacher unions and strong implementation of Common Core, ranks 51st among the states and Washington, D.C., in K-12 student achievement. Only Mississippi and post-Michelle Rhee D.C. were graded "F'' in student achievement. Mississippi also ranked among the lowest 10 states in providing young people a chance for success in life, financing schools and improving teaching. Mississippi's best ranking, as has been the case for several years, was in the area of standards, where the state got an "A'' and ranked 10th.

How can that be? The answer should be obvious. As you could probably guess, Mississippi once again lags behind all other 49 states when it comes to child welfare. They're on the bottom of the scale for the 12th straight year. In fact, Mississippi’s child poverty rate is twice as high as Lithuania’s. One key indicator of the lack of school success is the State's bottom ranking when it comes to children being born with low birth weight. 

It's important to understand that Mississippi like all other states, shouldn't be looked at as a single entity when it comes to poverty and education. In Mississippi communities whose school districts have an “A” grade from the Mississippi Department of Education, the average median household income is more than $46,000 a year. In those whose district has an “F” grade, the average income is below $25,000, according to a Daily Journal analysis based on 2013 rankings.

The rest of the country has nothing to brag about when it comes to child poverty. The United States’s child poverty rate ranks second-worst among the world’s developed countries, ahead of only Romania.

Massachusetts, with  the 4th highest median family income in the country, captures the top ranking in the Chance-for-Success Index for the sixth year in a row, earning an A-minus. But even Massachusetts is really "a tale of 3 cities" when it comes to child poverty and school performance.

Side Note: Mississippi is also a state that spends a large chunk of its education and teacher training budget on imported TFA teachers. 

Sorry Rahm. Rauner's toast.

 If “we don’t fundamentally change direction, we’re toast.” -- Bruce Rauner campaign ad

Sorry Rahm. But your boy Rauner is toast. I know, I know, you're officially supporting Quinn, the Democrat, in the governor's race. But, everyone knows you and Rauner are tight. Even though he's supposedly a Republican, he's been one of your many wealthy patrons you're counting on to get yourself re-elected in 2016 and prevent a Chicago de Blasio scenario. He's also your guy when it comes to school closings, smashing teacher unions, and expanding privately-run charters.

Being a Republican for billionaires like Rauner, is like being a member of the Chicago Yacht club. It's not a political statement, it's a statement about your class. Even fellow state Republicans aren't buying it. And like you, he's not even a real Chicagoan. He's an interloper who bought an apartment here so his kid could go to Walter Payton, one of the city's top selective-enrollment schools. Of course it also took a phone call to pal, Arne Duncan, who then made a phone call, and so on. Even the wealthiest in Rahmville, need "a guy." Isn't that how you started out?

But Rauner's problem, like his prototype Romney, is that he lacks the self-discipline to pull off the populist charade ("I'm not a career politician") needed to get himself elected governor. Sooner or later, even with their newly-minted starched plaid shirts and Eddie Bauer vests, these guys can't help but blurt out there disdain for working people and those living in poverty and they become a political embarrassment. Remember Romney's "47%" video?

In Rauner's case, despite all the money he spent on flacks and messaging experts, he just couldn't get his shit together on the overwhelmingly popular issue of raising of the minimum wage (not even talking about a living wage). Despite his previous denials and flip[ant]-flops, after saying he favored cutting the MW by a buck and hour, newly-surfaced September video has him proclaiming Romney-style, that he's ‘adamantly, adamantly’ against raising the minimum wage.

He's basically handed over the Gov's race to Quinn who has his own problems after the great pension robbery and his reviving the political corpse of Republicrat Paul Vallas.

Like I said, Rahm. He's toast.

Not so funny thing is --- Rauner's GOP rival, most likely to get union support in the primary, is even worse on MW than Rauner. Sen. Kirk Dillard says he's against the government setting ANY minimum wage wants the “marketplace” to decide how much or how little workers should be paid. He probably thinks slavery or involuntary servitude could put the state's businesses in a more competitive position.

And speaking of toast... Chris Crispy Christie.

Gates threatens to pull $40M in Pittsburgh funds unless union caves on VAM

I'm not sure if this has anything to do with AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten's sudden turn against so-called Value-Added Models (VAM) of teacher evaluation or not.

But I see that in Pittsburgh, Bill Gates is threatening to renege on $40 million he promised the district if the teachers union and PPS don't "work in harmony" to develop a VAM plan in which teachers are evaluated and paid on the basis of their student's test scores. Collaboration in this case obviously means that the city's teachers are forced to accept anything the district throws at them for fear of being blamed for losing the Gates money.

Gates pulled the same crap in D.C.

You may remember that Gates, Broad, and Walton pulled the same crap in D.C. when they, along with Arne Duncan,  threatened to pull out millions in district funding if voters booted out Mayor Fenty and Michelle Rhee. They did.

But Fenty's replacement Vincent Gray and his current Supt. Kaya Henderson (Rhee's assistant) have bowed to the power philanthropists and continued Rhee-ism (including VAM), without Rhee.

This is precisely why AFT rank-and-filers were concerned with when Weingarten accepted millions from Gates for the union's Innovation Fund. "Innovation" has become practically synonymous with VAM.

This is what happens when public schools are forced to go begging to the world's richest man in order to keep "public" education alive. The question now is, are Weingarten and the PFT willing and able to stand up to Gates' blackmail.

I had an interesting give-and-take with Randi yesterday after she Tweeted:

@NEPCtweet @mikeklonsky-I have always been leery abt #VAM-it's in contracts b/c RTTT-compelled state law- not wking in places its been tried
— Randi Weingarten (@rweingarten) 

I responded:

@rweingarten If you were "always leery" why did you praise Cleveland #VAM deal allowing dist to fire teachers after 2 yrs of bad evals?
— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) 

And:

@rweingarten @NEPCtweet But you called New Haven contract "a model" "a template". Doesn't sound like you were "leery" abt #VAM. Does it?
— Mike Klonsky (@mikeklonsky) 

And it went on from there. More probing her always leery comment on my part. No real responsiveness on her part, especially about the damage already done in New Haven, Cleveland, N.Y. and now in Pittsburgh. So much for the power of the Tweet.

To be attacked by Eric Cantor is a good thing

Eric Cantor's ratings in the dumper.

Cantor's attack shows that Mayor de Blasio is on the right track. The wing-nut House Majority Leader is simply going to bat for his hedge-fund school reformer friends in N.Y. who have been riding high and raking in public dough under Mayor Bloomberg.

Cantor fancies himself a r-r-revolutionary storming the anti-government barricades in the name of privatization of all public space. He obviously wishes he was old enough to have experienced the '60s.

“America is in the midst of an education revolution," he tells the Brookings Institute, referring to the unfettered growth of privately-run charter schools and school vouchers going to private and church-run schools.The real irony has this self-proclaimed anti-Washington, anti-gummint, local-control advocate trying to bully a city mayor and a local school district.

He's really upset about BdB's promise to make charter operators pay rent for use of public school space. "This move could devastate the growth of education opportunity in such a competitive real estate market like New York City,” he moans.
Cantor appears to have suddenly joined the war on poverty. While working to block every piece of anti-poverty legislation in Congress over the past 6 years, Cantor now claims that,

 "School choice is the surest way to break this vicious cycle of poverty and we must act fast before it is too late for too many.”

He threatens de Blasio:

“Our committees in the House will remain vigilant in their efforts to ensure that no one, no one from the government, stands in the schoolhouse door between any child and a good education.” 

Umm, Cong. Cantor, aren't you "from the government"? What the hell are you doing, coming up from Dixie  telling New Yorkers how to run their schools? You would do better to stay at home in Va. where your party's candidates are currently railing against school desegregation and where your own approval ratings have fallen to 27%. 

And the "schoolhouse door" reference, calling up images of Gov. Wallace really won't fly. Cantor is currently touting the Louisiana Scholarship Program, a school voucher initiative championed by Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) that was the target of a lawsuit by the Justice Department over claims that it impeded desegregation efforts.


BdB has the right answer for Cantor.

“The Republican agenda in Washington doesn’t even scratch the surface of the inequities facing more than a million children in our public schools,” he said in an e-mailed statement. “It’s a dangerous philosophy that turns its back on public education — and it has failed many times before. What public school parents want — and I know because I’m one of them — are real investments that lift up all our kids. That will take big, bold, progressive ideas. And that’s exactly what the people of New York City just voted for.”

Randi's "VAM is a sham" epiphany

Weingarten, Bloomberg, and Klein announce an agreement on plan that would give N.Y. teachers bonuses based on the test scores of students at schools that have high concentrations of poor children. (New York Times)

I'm glad AFT Pres. Randi Weingarten has finally seen the light on VAM. Really I am.

For those unfamiliar with so-called Value Added Modeling, it's the statistical measure that judges teacher quality based on the test scores of their students. The formula for evaluating teachers, deciding their performance-based pay, or even whether they fired from their jobs, looks like this.

y = Xβ + Zv + ε where β is a p-by-1 vector of fixed effects; X is an n-by-p matrix; v is a q-by-1 vector of random effects; Z is an n-by-q matrix; E(v) = 0, Var(v) = G; E(ε) = 0, Var(ε) = R; Cov(v,ε) = 0. V = Var(y) = Var(y - Xβ) = Var(Zv + ε) = ZGZT + R.

It was obviously invented by some mad scientists and mathematicians working in the basement of the Gates Foundation. 

But the question I have for Randi is -- what are you going to do about all those VAM-based contracts you went along with, lobbied for and helped impose on thousands of teachers in districts like New Haven (which you hailed as a "model" and a "template"),  New York,  L.A., Cleveland, Detroit, and D.C.?

You may have changed you mind, but we will be living with VAM for years to come.

Byrd-Bennett: 'It may have seemed like last minute, but it wasn't'

Yesterday's press conference.

That kind of exotic travel can only enhance Emanuel’s cartoon-like reputation among his harshest critics as “Mayor 1 Percent.” Which is apparently why Emanuel got a bit defensive when asked why he chose not to cut the Christmas trip short when Chicago’s weather forecast went south. -- Sun-Times

Rahm, all dressed up in Eddie Bauer polar fleece, seemed really pissed about having to rush back from his beach junket in Indonesia to fix another Byrd-Bennett screw up -- this one on the schools-open, schools-closed fiasco. BBB, knowing that wind-chill temps in Chicago were going to drop down to a deadly -45° initially ordered schools to remain open and for teachers to suck it up and report to work. Of course no parent in their right mind was going to risk their child's life and limb by having them outside, waiting for a school bus in this weather.

CTU Pres. Karen Lewis would have none of it. And faced with another un-winnable war with parents and teachers, BBB backed down and closed schools. I suspect the cell phone calls right from the beach in Indonesia, with a greased-up mayor screaming, "What the f%#k are you doing to me?" had lots to do with it.

The Trib's John Kass writes:

He [Rahm] was asked about how he let things get so far with the 40-below wind chill and parents not knowing late into Sunday afternoon whether schools would be open, when he stepped back and bravely allowed his schools chief, Barbara Byrd-Bennett to answer for him.

"That's not quite accurate," she told reporters of the Lewis-rolled-Rahm-again scenario. "As we began to take a look at the decrease in the temperature, and a decrease in the wind chill factor … we thought it best. … It may have seemed at the last minute, but it wasn't."

Byrd-Bennett was asked, didn't the teachers union compel you to close schools with its social media campaign?

"I actually was not aware they had done that," said Triple-B, proving she was the only person in Chicago who didn't know. "Somebody did send me an email that there was a press release or whatever but that had no effect on the ultimate decision I've made … and the recommendation I made to the mayor."

This scene had me reflecting on this morning's AP story about a naked man in Australia who had to be greased in olive oil after being stuck in a washing machine. I thought it was a great metaphor for once again, having to remove Rahm's private parts from the wringer. BBB will also need lots of grease to survive this one. Maybe she can borrow some of Rahm's tanning lotion.

ALSO: Be sure and read Todd Mertz' excellent piece on Brother Fred's blog about why the Sun-Times backed a pension bill that "kicks ordinary working people–secretaries, clerks, teachers, and the like–in the teeth." And why so many pols did so with shit-eating grins on their faces.

WEEKEND QUOTABLES

"Hobnobbing with masters of the universe has its limits..." --  Crain's

Greg Hinz

The prototype for the Emanuel mayoralty was Michael Bloomberg's New York: rich guys, bicycle lanes, central control, the whole schmear. Mr. Bloomberg's popularity waned dramatically after his first two terms and his successor, Bill de Blasio, is a liberal who has good relations with unions and minorities. The message to Mr. Emanuel is clear: Hobnobbing with masters of the universe has its limits, however good their advice seems. Running a city takes a wider reach. -- Crain's Chicago Business

Times Editorial

Studies have shown that suspensions and expulsions do nothing to improve the school climate, while increasing the risk that children will experience long-term social and academic problems. Federal data also indicates that minority students are disproportionately singled out for harsh disciplinary measures. -- Zero Tolerance, Reconsidered

Bill de Blasio

 “We start with our values. We start with the positions we took and made public throughout the last year. We will drop the appeal on the stop-and-frisk case, because we think the judge was right about the reforms that we need to make. We will settle the Central Park Five case because a huge injustice was done.” -- N.Y. Times

Carmen Fariña 

“Once I was about to visit a principal who told me, ‘You’re going to love coming here because you can hear a pin drop.’ I said, ‘I better not come because that isn’t going to make me happy.’ ” -- N.Y. Times

Waiting for a Chicago de Blasio?

Interesting piece in yesterday's S-T, "Chicago lefties look for their own Bill de Blasio". Dan Mihalopoulos obviously has his ear to the ground.

A nation — or at least the left-leaning activists of this one big city — is eager to turn its lonely eyes to someone who can take on the Chicago mayor whom lefties deride as “Mayor 1%” and the quintessential DINO (Democrat in Name Only).... Meanwhile, all the talk from the East Coast about combating income inequality, reining in charter-school expansion and other leftist issues has warmed Chicago lefties who see de Blasio as the sort of mayor this city needs instead of Rahm Emanuel.

But Mihalopoulos must understand that it's not just "lefties" or the CTU who want to take out Rahm. His positive ratings are lower than snail shit and there's even a significant section of Chicago's ruling class who have grown tired of the chaos, violence and corruption that have marred the city's image.

Mihalopoulos is right on top of things when he focuses on the lack of a unified labor movement in Chicago. Many of the city's union leaders are still tied to the Democratic machine by a thousand threads. Patronage rules the city council with the exception of a small but energized Progressive Caucus. BdB rode to victory on the strength of an independent political movement, the Working Families Party, led by organized labor. The WFP not only won for de Blasio, it elected dozens of councilmen as well. De Blasio's victory was also mirrored in Rochester with the election of Lovely Warren.

Mihalopoulos writes:

By the end of 2014, we will know whether the self-styled real Democrats of Chicago can transform such rhetoric into action. Before there can be a Chicago incarnation of de Blasio, one or all three of the big anti-Rahm labor groups could have to convert public discontent with Emanuel into the actual political muscle that would support a legitimate challenger, whoever that may be.

What he doesn't say is that there's much more involved in winning City Hall. Big money rules modern day elections and no independent candidate can possibly match Rahm's war chest, filled to the brim by a gaggle of billionaire cronies. But if there is any hope for the 99% in Chicago, it rests with the building of a WFP-style movement with an independent election strategy.

Mihalopouls' piece recalls for me the title of Clifford Odets depression-era play, "Waiting for Lefty" as well as the horrible teacher-bashing film, "Waiting for Superman". Rahm and many of his city council toadies can be had in 2015. But we can't wait for a de Blasio.

Why Duncan had it in for Starr

Starr opposed Duncan testing madness

Here's more on Arne Duncan's direct interference in de Blasio's selection of a schools chancellor. Duncan and his assistant, Jim Shelton (the man from Gates), pressured BdB against the selection of Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Joshua Starr. WaPo education writer Valerie Strauss explains why Duncan felt so threatened by Starr.

Starr, who runs Maryland’s largest school district, just miles from the White House, became nationally known last year when he made a call for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes standardized testing, a central component of Duncan’s school reform policies. Starr said the country should “stop the insanity” of evaluating teachers according to student test scores, calling it a flawed method.

Let's Make a Deal
Having lost the battles, both to prevent de Blasio's election and then to get him to pick a Michelle Rhee-type schools chancellor, N.Y. corporate reformers are now calling for a "truce". Charles Sahm from the right-wing Manhattan Institute writing in the Daily News, calls on the de Blasio administration to "drop its anti-charter plans and rhetoric," make teachers work a longer day for less money and a cut in benefits, and avoid Fariña's "progressive" curricular leanings.
That's not a "truce". It's a surrender.

Outlaws in America

Edward Snowden "has done his country a great service," says yesterday's New York Times editorial."When someone reveals that government officials have routinely and deliberately broken the law, that person should not face life in prison at the hands of the same government." I agree.

More on Fariña pick: You can't go wrong expecting the worst from Duncan.

In yesterday's post on de Blasio's appointment of Carmen Fariña as schools chancellor, I implied that pressure from Arne Duncan and his assistant, Jim Shelton (a Gates Foundation insert at the DOE), was being exerted on the new mayor to appoint a corporate reformer type. As it turns out, I was right on the money. I've learned long ago, that you're almost always on safe ground when anticipating unethical behavior from the Duncan gang.

Yesterday's Washington Post reports:

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and at least one other Education Department official urged New York Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and his team not to choose Montgomery County Schools Superintendent Joshua P. Starr as the city’s next schools chancellor, according to several people knowledgable about the selection process. It was an unusual move by the nation’s top education official and came in the wake of Starr’s vocal criticism of some of the Obama administration’s school reform policies.

Starr was reportedly on BdB's short list that included Rhee disciple, Maya Henderson and Chicago's school-closing CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett. Credit both Starr and de Blasio for not giving in to Duncan's bullying. BdB reportedly offered Starr the number 2 job on the assumption that he would soon take over for the 70-year-old Fariña. Starr declined, opting instead to continue his work in Montgomery County, where he earned the wrath of Shelton by criticizing Duncan's Race To The Top.

Duncan used his position to stump for Rhee and Fenty in D.C.. 

Duncan and Shelton were both big fans of Michelle Rhee in D.C. and Duncan even tried to provide cover for her in the D.C. test-cheating scandal.

According to the Post,

In January 2011, while D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) deliberated on who would succeed Michelle A. Rhee as D.C. schools chancellor, Duncan said publicly that he hoped Kaya Henderson, Rhee’s deputy, would get the job. She did.