Neoliberalism, Charter Schools and the Chicago Model

[Hannah Bell]

It should be no surprise that Barrack Obama supports charter schools. As the junior senator from Illinois he doubled the amount of charter schools in his state...

Since his election, Obama has pledged $100 billion dollars of federal money for a stimulus for public schools throughout the nation. But there’s a hitch; in order to qualify for federal monies the states that apply for the stimulus money must remove any caps they have on the amount of charter schools that can be created in their states, and those states that do not have charter school laws, of which there are currently ten, either will have to pass laws allowing the growth of charters or miss out on any stimulus funding...

But the real story and the prospects for the nation’s future educational policy can be best revealed by Duncan’s historical involvement as a technocrat with the neoliberal policies created in Chicago under the Renaissance 2010 project launched by Mayor Daley in 2004; here, Duncan was the darling of business elites and their public policy makers during his seven year tenure as CEO of Chicago Public Schools...

Duncan is also known to not only be a ardent defender of corporate involvement in, and privatization of, public schools, but he personally oversaw the attempted closing of 20 Chicago public schools in low-income neighborhoods of color in 2004...During the first half of 2004 before details of any school reform plan under Renaissance 2010 had been announced by Duncan, Bronzeville community members, part of the Mid-South of Chicago, anxiously awaited the release of the Mid-South plan...Initially the community was told that a decision had been made by the “secret cabinet” to improve 20 schools between 31st and'47th Streets along the Dan Ryan Expressway east to Lake Michigan...The details of the Mid-South plan as it was known among elite policy making circles, was leaked to the press on July 24, 2009. But the plan leaked to the press didn’t call for any improvements of the public schools in the area as citizens had been falsely led to believe; instead it called for the closure of 20 of the 22 public schools in the community...The community members argued that the plan was concocted and put into place by Duncan to rid the community of its residents in order to further gentrification plans for the new urban land reforms...

The Obama education policy differs little from the Bush administration’s policy of hitching student and teacher performance to what many in the educational community and beyond call inauthentic assessments...Where it is more far-reaching than the Bush educational plan, however, is in its commitment to expand the charter school market by forcing all the states in the nation to pass legislation for the creation of charter schools. It also goes further down the road of ‘choice’ by requiring all states to remove all caps on charter start-ups, and then have them unleash some variation of the Diverse Provider Strategy model, a network of retail charter and contract schools accountable and wedded to a system of ‘measureable outcomes’ derived from standardized tests mandated under No Child Left Behind. Add to all of this the fact that Obama has said he might be in favor of private vouchers, his adamant commitment to merit pay based on performance on standardized tests, his suspicion of tenure and seniority and one would think that teacher’s unions would be aghast...



http://www.counterpunch.org/weil08242009.html

[Hannah Bell]

1. dupe please delete.

[DailyGrind51]

2. 1 in 5 CPS High School teachers claim pressure to change grades

1 in 5 Chicago Public High School teachers say they felt pressure to change grades last school year
A SUN-TIMES WATCHDOG REPORT | A third of Chicago public high school teachers say they were pressured to change grades last school year
Comments

August 29, 2009

BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters

Nearly a third of Chicago public high school teachers say they were pressured to change grades this past school year.

One in five report they actually raised a grade under such prodding.
» Click to enlarge image
Portage Park teacher Jeronna Hopkins said teachers were told repeatedly not to give less than a C to special ed students. She believes it was an attempt to avoid giving kids more special ed help.
(Al Podgorski/Sun-Times)


RELATED STORIES
Grade change survey results Union chief: Changing grades unfair to students, teachers Teacher comments on grade-changing How Sun-Times, Teachers Union did the survey
TEACHERS ON CHANGING GRADES
Why did CPS teachers feel pressured to change grades for the better in 2008-2009? Some volunteered these answers:
-- "to avoid parental conflict. The parent is a CPS teacher."
-- "graduating senior who needed to pass and parent pressure."
-- "principal wanted graduation rate to increase so she would not be reprimanded."
-- "not enough parental contact before assigning a failing grade."
-- "to reduce the total number of students that were being referred for summer school."
-- "a final grade of D was automatic summer school and unnecessary for this particular child."
-- "to keep a child from repeating sixth grade."
-- "an athlete needed a better grade point average."
-- "special needs student who had 80+ absences and the case manager insisted that the student should not fail."
-- "our principal has told us that no one who is in bilingual or special ed should receive lower than a C."
-- "if I failed more than 30 % of my students, I thought that the principal or the area would have me fired."
-- "provide extra credit work to students that did nothing in the first place."


Who pressured CPS teachers in 2008-2009 to change grades for the better? Some teachers volunteered these answers:
-- "parent who was a principal at another school."
-- "a parent who was also a teacher. "
-- "a counselor who was parent of student."
-- "the principal did not like parent complaints."
-- "special ed staff²
-- "counselor, special ed teacher."
-- "department chair, etc. It is not explicitly stated, but it is overtly implied."
-- "other teachers who had the same student."
-- "word of mouth that failure rate must be low."
-- "fellow faculty advised me the consequences of failing more than 30%²
-- "general school culture that you shouldn¹t send students to summer school."
-- "it starts at the board level."

And dozens of teachers -- elementary and high school alike -- say they believe someone changed their grades last year without their approval.

Those are the results of an unprecedented survey of more than 1,200 Chicago Teachers Union members conducted by the CTU and the Chicago Sun-Times in June and July.

The findings raise serious questions about whether some of the data used to judge Chicago public schools has been inflated, artificially manipulated -- or in some cases outright altered.

The responses pulled back the curtain on the stress many teachers feel every time they sit down to issue grades.

"I am giving grades. Kids aren't earning them," said math teacher Bonnie Kayser.
'It's in the culture'

Teachers reported pressure from principals, "upset'' parents and even other CPS employees who were parents of their students. They said the squeeze was put on them to pass failing students, to give ill students a break or to help athletes. Some felt prodded to goose up grades to help kids graduate, avoid summer school or get into an elite high school.

Such heat was twice as common among teachers in high schools, where the push is on to reduce failure rates. Several such teachers said they felt pressured to offer last-minute deals to kids so they wouldn't fail. Another said her school lowered its grading scale and "still we are pressured to change grades.''

"That's all this district cares about -- how many kids are failing. Not how many kids are learning,'' said Kayser, who taught math at Fenger Achievement Academy last year.

Kayser said she was urged to assign make-up work, offer extra credit and stop giving zeros for missed assignments -- even for students who blew off most work or skipped tests.

Other survey respondents said grade-inflation is simply built into the high-school system.

"It's in the culture of the schools,'' wrote one experienced high school teacher who raised numerous grades under pressure -- and said at least one was changed without his approval. "You can't completely be honest in grading students, otherwise the failure rate would be off the chart.''

"While I am not crazy about it, I am sure it is necessary for a host of reasons,'' wrote another. "As the grade coordinator at the school, I am the one that has to actually make the changes.''
'Too many Fs = bad school'

More than 7 percent of high school teachers said they believed someone else changed their grades this past school year, and 4 percent of grammar school teachers reported such changes.

Chicago Schools CEO Ron Huberman said he takes the survey findings "very seriously'' and believes that new annual grade audits of every school will prevent tampering. The audits follow revelations this spring that grades were changed for Bulls star Derrick Rose and three other athletes in 2007, while they played basketball at Simeon High.

Make-up work can sometimes be appropriate but it shouldn't be "simply made-up work that doesn't justify going to the next grade,'' Huberman said.

"We are not going to accept as a school system people gaming grades," Huberman said. "No one should be pressured to change anyone's grade in a way they feel is inappropriate.''

In high schools, one F can stop a student from graduating and thereby affect a school's graduation rate -- one measure that can trigger district or federal sanctions.

And the pressure is nothing new in high schools, the survey found. More than half of high school teachers said at some point in their careers, they faced pressure to change grades for the better.

Last school year in particular, some teachers -- even in elementary grades -- felt their teacher ratings, jobs or the fate of their schools would be in peril if they gave out too many Fs.

One fourth-grade teacher in the survey reduced the situation to an equation: "too many Fs = failure notices = bad school.''
'A lot of game-playing'

The Chicago Sun-Times and the CTU agreed to work together to survey teachers after both received complaints from teachers of pressure to change grades. With input from the CTU, the Sun-Times wrote the survey and the CTU e-mailed it to teacher members.

Deborah Stipek, dean of Stanford University's School of Education, cautioned that teachers who felt pressure to change grades were probably more likely to fill out surveys than those who didn't. Even so, Stipek was not surprised by the results.

"It tells you what we all know -- that high-stakes pressures on schools don't necessarily result in increased quality of education'' but they can produce "a lot of game-playing and efforts to look good,'' Stipek said.

Survey responses also indicated teachers interpreted "pressure'' in different ways. Some considered a superior's constant references to a school's failure rate or the questioning of Fs they issued to be pressure; others didn't.

Untenured, rookie teachers -- especially in high schools -- were twice as likely to report pressure as the most seasoned teachers..
'It felt like ambush'

And not just Fs were at issue.

Some teachers said they were prodded to change grades so kids could make the honor roll, maintain a class rank or get a scholarship.

"I was extremely disappointed that my principal called me in to a meeting with the student, coach and parents without talking to me first,'' one high school teacher wrote.

"It felt like ambush -- very unprofessional. The student cut my final exam and still got a 'C' for previous efforts, but the principal wanted a higher grade to help him get a scholarship.''

More than one in 10 elementary teachers said they changed grades under pressure. Said one who did so for seventh-grade students: "I was told that other schools do it to help get kids into selective enrollment high schools.''

Several teachers reported they were told they could not flunk special education students, even if they did little work. Wrote one: "Either change or be labeled a monster for failing special education kids that do nothing!''

At Portage Park Elementary, fourth-grade teacher Jeronna Hopkins said, teachers were told repeatedly not to give less than a C to special ed students. Hopkins believes it was an attempt to avoid giving kids more special ed help -- a charge Principal Mark Berman called "ridiculous.''

Last school year, Hopkins said, she resisted pressure to change the Fs she gave to one special ed student she was convinced needed more help. Ultimately, two Fs she issued were entered into a computer, which automatically increased the child's special ed minutes from 200 to 600 a week.

"Most people just don't want to deal with the headache, that if I give out an F the principal might be mad at me or lower my rating,'' Hopkins said.

"Some people can't deal with the pressure.''
Survey results

Specifically, during the 2008-09 school year, did you ever feel pressure from any CPS employee to change one or more grades for the better?
Grade taught in 2008-09 % pressured in 2008-09
1st - 12th 19%
1st - 8th 14%
9th - 12th 31%
Years as a teacher

0 to 3 24%
4 to 10 18%
> 10 12%

During the 2008-09 school year, did you ever actually change a grade for the better due to pressure?
Grade taught in 2008-09 % changed grade in 2008-09
1st - 12th 14%
1st - 8th 11%
9th - 12th 20%
Years as a teacher

0 to 3 13%
4 to 10 9%
> 10 8%

http://www.suntimes.com/news/education/1741991,CST-NWS-grades30.article

[blindpig]

3. k&r n/t

[joeycola]

4. The word "choice" is a key word of the neoliberalists. But the

neoliberlists hit the ground around 1950 and we are embedded in it now--.

[joeycola]

5. And the Walmart Foundation is a big contributor to Duncan's

new model.

[fascisthunter]

6. KICK and REC! Here is a Pretty Good Interview on Democracy Now:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan Pushes to Aggressively Expand Charter Schools While Admitting Problems

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/23/education_secretary_arne_duncan_pushes_to

[Hannah Bell]

7. thanks, i posted it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6477151&mesg_id=6477151