Thoughts from a BASHED Teacher...

[YvonneCa]

...about Education Reform. These have been previously posted...mostly in the Education Forum. I'd love to have feedback from other DUers. :)

First one:


I worry that much of the public and many politicians (who rightfully want to improve public schools) have no real idea of what is wrong with them. So they try 'canned solutions'...like merit pay...most of which are the wrong thing to do. JMHO. Merit pay is divisive...just like NCLB was. That doesn't mean it can't be a tool for improvement if done in the right way, but it HAS to be done fairly.

Example... NCLB has good things in it, but it became bogged down because it used AYP to pit schools and districts and teachers against each other..instead of helping us to work together toward a goal we all share: Improving education for kids. I think ANY workable solution will require input and support from teachers...not just unions...teachers. Lately, teachers have become the scapegoat for ALL that is wrong in public schools. Personally, I can no longer tolerate that.

I also believe NCLB also put great pressure on administrators to meet AYP goals. I think it's important not to paint ALL administrators with a broad brush, either, because there are MANY good administrators who do their best to work cooperatively with teachers to educate children in their districts. But there is a conflict...most administrators are 'at-will' employees, which means they would lose their job if goals were not met, which means they do what they have to to reach AYP. In some cases, as I have witnessed, they resort to harassing teachers to make this happen.

I am an educator. So are most administrators. We HAVE to work together to fix our system. THAT'S why I feel so strongly that teachers...not just unions...have to be heard. I also think GOOD administrators should be involved.


It is CRITICALLY important that we fix public education. We, as a country, have talked about it the whole time I have been a teacher...but we haven't done the right things. Politics always gets in the way.

THIS TIME, I want Obama to do it right. If all he does is 'fix teachers', he will...sadly...learn what teachers already know: WE are not the #1 problem. And we will have wasted more time and more money and we still won't be educating our kids for THEIR future. THAT is no longer acceptable...at least not to me.

I voted for President Obama. I think he is a smart man, and the person we need now to lead. I want him to make good decisions for our country. On education, I believe he can only do that with ALL the information out there...and that includes the point of view and experience of TEACHERS. I, too, have great hopes for what he may be able to accomplish. My hope comes from knowing he is intelligent enough to understand problems we face and find solutions, seeing that he has great empathy for all people (even those who don't agree with him), and observing that he is willing to learn from what has gone before (both in politics and policy) and builds a strong foundation for the things he proposes.


A second one:



After MTP today, it's clear none of us will ever get through to Duncan or Obama either. They have chosen their path and the saying goes, "When you choose the behavior you also choose the consequences." The die has been cast.

As to these words "...find me even one quote where teachers at-large have been cited by a Democrat as being 'the problem' with education" my Dems find ways to not say that as it is politically a loser for them. But without saying the words they align with Republicans who have preached a different philosophy for years. That is not comforting...and I say this as a huge proponent of unity and bipartisanship.

Finally, you relentlessly cite your data to make the case that bad teachers need to go. Yes, they do. There are a small number of bad teachers and I don't know any teachers who want them protected. They need to find another line of work. Agreed.

What I question is data, because I've watched it gathered, I know much of it is invalid, and I've experienced being on the wrong end when the sledgehammer comes down. Some here have that experience, as well. That doesn't mean I am against testing. That doesn't mean I am against data and accountability. That doesn't mean I oppose fixing the broken teacher evaluation system.

It just means I think Duncan, Obama, Klein, Rhee, Gingrich, Sharpton and others in education reform are choosing to ignore this problem...because it goes counter to the goals they seek.



A third:


Duncan (and Obama) are following someone who has totally missed the point. He ..

...said, "When I was at Bertelsmann, we were constantly focused on how to incentivize the workforce, inject increasing accountability, deciding where to substitute technology for human capital."

The workforce in schools is the STUDENTS...not the teachers. THAT's the bottom line and it's why we keep failing at trying to fix schools. Teachers are a part of middle management, as APs and principals are. We have to be on the same team to manage our students' academic growth. EVERYTHING these NYC reformers are doing misses that point and it's CRITICAL to fixing schools.

I agree with the need to fix our schools to compete globally. I understand that requires big changes....go for it.;)

I do not...and never have... opposed the goal. AND I want Obama to be the President that 'gets it done right.' But these guys are WRONG. They are focusing on the wrong thing, and we in education know it. THAT's why teachers keep speaking out...not because we oppose the goals.



Fourth:


I never accepted that is is okay for even ONE student to fail...

...let alone 93% of students to fail in my 24 years of teaching. I STILL don't accept that. What I also don't accept is the assumption that...to 'turn around' a school...it is right to fire all the teachers, including the good ones. Can you accept that there might be even ONE good teacher at a low-performing school?

As to vouchers, I am glad President Obama opposes them...he should. He needs to FIGHT the right wing...not enable them. And he needs to fight WITH TEACHERS...not against them.

As a teacher, am I supposed to just say, to my teacher colleagues who worked with me in the trenches for years to reform schools in our district FOR OUR KIDS, "Thank goodness we'll never have to worry about the voucher issue anymore, now that we've elected President Obama...but sorry you were fired in the process" ?


My standards for the President are higher than that. I expect him to respect and support good teachers EVERYWHERE...even in low-performing districts...AND prevent vouchers at the same time. He CAN walk and chew gum at the same time. YES, he can. :)

I (and my teacher colleagues) voted for our President. I (and my teacher colleagues) went door-to-door for him in far away places. I (and my teacher colleagues) support almost all his policies and think he is off to a good start in a VERY difficult Presidency at a very critical time. I still support him.

But I (and my teacher colleagues) need him to support US.


Last (I promise :) ):


The article seems, to me, to make the case for...

...better trained administrators. It is a 'jumping on the bandwagon' style OpEd that continues the delusion that teachers are the problem, when that isn't true.

In 2001, under the Bush Administration’s Education Secretary, Rod Paige, teachers (unions, specifically) were called terrorist organizations. For the last eight years, NCLB has done nothing but blame public school problems on ineffective teachers (probably because some reformers prefer vouchers). There has been almost NO recognition for eight years of the job teachers do. The general public has NO IDEA what the job entails and our leaders have worked to make that WORSE for eight years. Now, it seems, the effort is to use data unfairly to document the delusion.

Rather than continuing the fantasy that 'if we better evaluate and quantify what a teacher does we'll be able to get rid of the bad ones and our schools will get better', a better start would be a HUGE and LOUD apology to the teachers of this nation who have dedicated their lives to teaching kids... most with little support, either financial or in respect.

Most teachers I know expect and have no problem with fair evaluation. If the past system needs reform, then we SHOULD make it better. But, unfortunately, it is not teachers who have the power to make evaluation fair. Right now it is politicians...most of whom know little about teaching in a classroom. They must not know that judging a teacher by a student test score is inherently unfair. There are too many variables out of a teacher's control to do that.

This is a problem in need of a solution. But it is time for politicians to stop this game and publicly apologize to teachers for scapegoating them in recent years. Should we work together to make evaluations better? Absolutely! Should we work together to get rid of the FEW bad teachers that tarnish the reputation of the majority? The sooner the better. Should we work together to finally fix public schools for the 21st century? Sign me up.

But let's be honest. Truth in Teaching? It has yet to be heard in the public discourse. It is long past time we had a discussion about what is truly wrong in our schools. The simple answer (the one that is usually wrong) is not teachers. It is very multi-faceted and will require honesty from ALL stakeholders.

ALL of them, including teachers.

[donco6]

1. Haven't read it all yet, but -

on that one point about finding ONE good teacher in a low-performing school . . .

I've seen low-performing schools with ALL good teachers. I swear to God. They were working their butts off, with the best, most advanced research and techniques. What didn't they have? Kids who walked in the door speaking English, when the state requires all kids to be tested in English by 3rd grade. And before people accuse me of blaming the kids - I'm NOT. I'm blaming a system that sets schools up to FAIL (supposedly).

[YvonneCa]

2. Thanks, donco6, I appreciate that you are even...

...reading some of it...it is rather long! :7

As to your comment about 'ONE good teacher'...I can't tell you how much I appreciate what you said. I worked in such a school, too, for a long time. (99% free/reduced lunch, 80+ ELL, hi-tranciency rate, high poverty district). Great kids and hard-working families.

Teachers there were (and still are) dedicated to our kids. It's where my passion on this issue comes from. I don't want to see them hurt.

[dkf]

3. The question is what can the state control.

They can't make students want to learn nor can they make parents more involved. Sure they can want it and talk about it but that is about all.

They can control who teaches the kids. And some teachers have a gift for engaging students while others don't.

I do think that the effort to throw all kids in one class regardless of ability is detrimental. This emphasis on fairness is misguided when those who are behind or are special needs need more help not the same help.

[YvonneCa]

17. There are ways to involve parents and families...

...in a child's education. Good educators can improve parental involvement. Why are we not being asked to help?

[dkf]

21. Sometimes they can and sometimes they can't.

Our society does not expect parental involvement

[YvonneCa]

22. I agree our society doesn't always support....

...parental involvement. And I don't think teachers are the ones to fix everything. But I DO think good teachers work to improve parental involvement...and they implement strategies that have been proven to help.

[Greyhound]

4. K&R

[YvonneCa]

6. Thanks! n/t

[deminwi]

5. I support the President

I support the President in this matter. My experiences as a student leads me to favor major reform of the educational system. My elementary school teachers were talented, hard-working, dedicated professionals that were/are a credit to all teachers. The teachers that I had in junior and senior high school were for the most part lazy, selfish, and militant. I can't tell you how many times I would walk into a classroom and find the lesson for the day written on the chalkboard (from 1st bell to the last class of the day it didn't change) and my teacher either doing her nails, or balancing a checkbook, or reading a book/newspaper. I basically taught myself from 7th grade on.

[YvonneCa]

7. Welcome to DU. I support the President...

...too. His goals are on target. But I worry he will not succeed unless he hears the voices of educators.

[tonysam]

8. You support a president who hasn't a clue about schools just

because you had a bad experience? Spare me, please.

[Jakes Progress]

11. It must have been bad.

The poster didn't seem to learn that one experience (one biased experience at that) doesn't make a basis for policy. For some, it is all about themselves.

[Pisces]

9. I appreciate you point of view. Are you saying that the problem is the children? What are your

suggestions for a solution. I don't think attacking one side of the problem is the answer either, however what hard decisions must be made?

I will say that similar to postal workers, there has to be a way to fire incompetent people. The reason they fired everyone was to avoid lawsuit. They will rehire the good ones and not the bad ones.
It should not be an all or nothing system.

[YvonneCa]

16. Thanks. Of course children are not the problem...

...at all. I would never say that. Children...all students...need educators to do this right. My post was in support of the case for listening to educators about how to fix public schools.

As to suggestions for a solution, many of us have been offering those for months now at Ed.gov...the Department of Education website. Here is a post with MANY teacher and educator suggestions:

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2009/05/secretary-arne-duncan-takes-listening-tour-online-invites-comments-on-raising-standards/


My post is here:

Yvonne
Posted May 16, 2009 at 12:29 am
Secretary Duncan,

Thank you for your listening tour. As a recently retired teacher, I really hope you are successful in rebuilding our public schools. I have given a lot of thought, during my career, about what it would take to better educate our kids and make schools work better. Here in California we have had very high standards for some time…and while they are important, I want to be sure you know it will take much more than just ‘fine-tuning’ standards to make education right.

So, what follows are my thoughts about what you should REALLY consider, if you truly plan to make our public schools the envy of the world (which would be my goal).

Number One: Publicly apologize to teachers for scapegoating them in recent years. You need them on your side (and they aren’t right now). In 2001, under the Bush Administration’s Education Secretary, Rod Paige, teachers (unions, specifically) were called terrorist organizations. For the last eight years, NCLB has done nothing but blame public school problems on ineffective teachers (probably because they prefer vouchers). There has been almost NO recognition for eight years of the job teachers do. The general public has NO IDEA what the job entails and our leaders have worked to make that WORSE for eight years. A better start would be a HUGE and LOUD apology to the teachers of this nation who have dedicated their lives to teaching kids. Most with little support, either financial or in respect.

Number Two: And then ask teachers what they think, and make THAT public. What a difference that would bring! Much of the public and many politicians (who rightfully want to improve public schools) have no real idea of what is wrong with them. So they try ‘canned solutions’…like merit pay…most of which are the wrong thing to do. JMHO. Merit pay is divisive…just like NCLB was. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a tool for improvement if done in the right way, but it HAS to be done fairly. Example: NCLB has good things in it, but it became bogged down because it used AYP to pit schools and districts and teachers against each other..instead of helping us to work together toward a goal we all share: Improving education for kids. I think ANY workable solution will require input and support from teachers…not just unions…teachers. In all the talk of fixing public education and schools…which I wholeheartedly support…the idea of involving teachers in this process is never brought up by anyone in a position of authority. I’m glad to hear they may ‘rename’ NCLB and start to include a ‘progress’ measure for accountability…but talk about putting lipstick on the proverbial pig.

Number Three: My reform ideas, with the underlying prerequisite that teachers MUST be involved in designing a program in order for it to be successful…

1. For teachers, stop demeaning them and start treating them professionally. Create career paths for them. Very few exist now, because teaching used to be a ‘traditional woman’s job.’

2. Integrate curriculum. Learning makes more sense to kids when connections to other knowledge can be made. We have lost that in the era of NCLB. And we can still keep standards to meet…just not in isolation.

3. Create multiple pathways/goals for students’ graduation…all of them rigorous. Have it kick in at about age 10 or so…be flexible until age 12 (to be sure the child has made a good personal choice)…and then be the student’s committed choice after that. Some kids may choose science/math, others may go into writing/journalism, others to a third choice. It’s important to design these pathways well…for areas students will need to work in in the future. When they finish, they are job-ready or college ready…but THEY have some buy-in to their future goal (not just their teacher or their parents).

4. Ungraded schools at the elementary level. As some have said here, mastery of concepts should be required to move on. It’s WAY more complicated than that…but clearly passing kids from grade to grade does not work.

5. Find ways to involve parents in their child’s education…ie. Student Led Conferences, Curriculum Fair, technology, etc. The list is endless.

6. Testing for accountability shoud be streamlined. Under NCLB, the testing has become all-consuming. It leaves little time to teach.

If the only test given was for NCLB…once a year…I’d cheer. But, in my county, tests are given three times a year…in reading, math and writing…to be sure state standards are met…in addition to NCLB. We start the school year…we test. We get to Christmas…we test. We return in the spring…we do test prep and test NCLB. After NCLB, at the end of the year…we test again. That’s what I mean. And anyone who has taught knows you don’t just test one day…you have all the hassle because kids are absent/makeups, etc. And then there’s the focus on scoring.

Teacher energy needs to be on the kids and teaching.

7. Use data fairly. Measure growth.

Example: At the start of a new school year, student A reads at 4th grade level. By year’s end, student A reads at 6th grade level. That’s two years of growth, and it is easily tested. Let’s say student A is in a 4th grade classroom. The teacher does well, both on growth…and currently on NCLB. That’s because NCLB wanted that student to read at 5th grade level by the end of the year…target met.

Now, take student B. At the start of the school year, student B reads at 4th grade level. By year’s end, student B reads at 6th grade level. Again, that’s two years of growth and it’s easily tested. But student B is in a 6th grade classroom. The teacher has done well on growth…two years. But the teacher is ‘iffy’ on NCLB, because the target is 7th grade level (ready for middle school).

And then, take student C. At the start of the school year, student C reads at 4th grade level. By year’s end, student C reads at 5th grade level. That’s one year growth, and it’s easily tested. But student C is also in a 6th grade classroom. The teacher has done okay on growth (one year for one year of instruction) by the student can’t meet the NCLB target of 7th grade. That teacher is PUNISHED by NCLB.

That is the part that is unfair. And many excellent, dedicated teachers in underperforming schools are being targetted because of it.

Another example:

Let’s say there are four second grade teachers. Every one of them produces an average of 1 to 3 years growth in their class of students. But they are very different as teachers…one complains about *certain* students placed in their class every year, another teaches ‘GATE’ students (and they get averaged into the total class improvement), another regularly takes kids the others don’t want because of a belief that you work with students as they come to you, etc.

Thanks to the current focus on ‘data’ and ‘results’ (which does have a place) at the end of the year, these four teachers get a number (data) showing average growth of their class. IMO, data is important, but it is ONE measure of each teacher. Remember, ALL these teachers added value. ALL these teachers are good teachers. But administrators…under great pressure as ‘at-will’ employees…see this data. Some (really bad ones) make the data public by handing it out at staff meetings. This pits one teacher against another when we should all be working toward the same goal.

Data is a tool…but only ONE tool. Anyone who has taken a class in statistics will tell you you can twist data to make a case for anything. That’s what has changed under NCLB…successful teachers who help their students grow are NOT rewarded, they are punished because sometimes even 3-4 years growth is still below standard.

Thanks for listening! And good luck to you, Secretary Duncan…I KNOW our country can do better.

I have to also say that other educators at ED.Gov have detailed, excellent ideas about all aspects of public schools...from preschool to college, special ed. and more. There are many solutions...some of which Sec. Duncan is choosing to do (like measuring growth).

[frazzled]

10. Would this heartening story cheer you up?

It's from today's Chicago Tribune (front page), and it kinda made me choke up. Note that this is a public school (though charter), and unlike the high-achieving magnets in Chicago like Whitney Young, it has to accept everyone. Yes, they lost a few along the way (the class of 150 dwindled to 107 after transfers and I suppose dropouts), but if you knew how truly severe a place the Englewood neighborhood is, this is remarkable. Kudos to the teachers and administrators:

100 percent of first senior class at all male, all African-American Englewood academy is accepted to universities

On Friday, Alexander proudly swapped his high school's red uniform tie for a striped red and gold one — the ritual at Englewood's Urban Prep Academy for Young Men that signifies a student has been accepted into college.

As the Roseland resident and 12 others tied their knots, Chicago's only public all-male, all-African-American high school fulfilled its mission: 100 percent of its first senior class had been accepted to four-year colleges.

Mayor Richard Daley and city schools chief Ron Huberman surprised students at the all-school assembly Friday morning with congratulations, and school leaders announced that as a reward, prom would be free.

The achievement might not merit a visit from top brass if it happened at one of the city's elite, selective enrollment high schools. But Urban Prep, a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago's most beleaguered neighborhoods, faced much more difficult odds.

Only 4 percent of this year's senior class read at grade level as freshmen, said Tim King, the school's founder and CEO.

"There were those who told me that you can't defy the data," King said. "Black boys are killed. Black boys drop out of high school. Black boys go to jail. Black boys don't go to college. Black boys don't graduate from college.

"They were wrong," he said.

Every day, before attending advanced placement biology classes and lectures on changing the world, students must first pass through the neighborhood, then metal detectors.

"Poverty, gangs, drugs, crime, low graduation rates, teen pregnancy — you name it, Englewood has it," said Kenneth Hutchinson, the school's director of college counseling, who was born and raised in Englewood.

<...>

For now, students are enjoying the glow of reaching their immediate goal.

Normally, it takes 18-year-old Jerry Hinds two buses and 45 minutes to get home from school. On the day the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana was to post his admission decision online at 5 p.m., he asked a friend to drive him to his home in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

He went into his bedroom, told his well-wishing mother this was something he had to do alone, closed the door and logged in.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" he remembers screaming. His mother burst in and began crying.

That night he made more than 30 phone calls, at times shouting "I got in" on his cell phone and home phone at the same time.

"We're breaking barriers," he said. "And that feels great."

[donco6]

12. And we did it with our public schools.

http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_10851658

Scroll down to MESA - that's ours.

[YvonneCa]

14. I am heartened ....and I choke up, too...

...about kids doing well. Several years ago, I remember sitting in a school board meeting, listening to district students sing "I Believe I Can Fly" and not being able to stop the tears. It's always been about the kids, for me. :grouphug:

[Hannah Bell]

18. "a charter school that enrolls all comers in one of Chicago's most beleaguered neighborhoods"

Enrollment is open to all matriculating 9th grade boys living in Chicago.


i.e., it doesn't enroll only from "one of chicago's most beleagured neighborhoods"

in fact, most of the students come from other neighborhoods:

"Duncan has replaced shuttered neighborhood schools with non-union charter and contract operators that screen out low-income students and exclude children with disabilities, providing them with substandard services when they do admit them.

At one of the district’s flagship charter schools, Urban Prep, only 14 percent of the student body comes from the surrounding Englewood community. Charters have pushed out students with disciplinary records and youth whose first language is not English or whose parents are not active in the community.

Tyrone Jones’s academic struggles at Perspectives Charter School in 2007 were enough for the school to expel him. Perspectives had created a rule just before the start of the school year allowing the administration to remove students who failed to maintain a 2.0 average for two academic terms.

Jones’s mother, LaTanya, attributes her son’s fate to murky standards at charters, which allow children to be abandoned due to low grades."

http://labornotes.org/node/2056.


"Urban Prep had a yearly combined transfer and drop out rate of 13.8% with most of these students transferring."

[frazzled]

19. Fewer than 10 of the 150 were expelled or dropped out

Only 4% entering the freshman class were reading at grade level when they came. Put those two figures together and your negativity doesn't stand up. These were all challenged kids, and most of them stuck with it. The school itself didn't kick out all the losers--only a small percentage were let go or dropped out. Better than at most schools.

I know you'd love to bash this experiment. But it's pretty damned impressive. 96% of the kids who entered could not even read at grade level. 100% of them will be going to college.

This is a model, aspects of which might be tried at other schools: expanded instructional hours, strict disciplinary codes, goal-oriented. I realize it's not a magic bullet to turn every struggling kid into the country into a college-bound graduate. But when we have schools where most everybody is failing, the status quo is not acceptable. It can't go on. These kinds of experiments can be springboards for change elsewhere. It's not about this particular school--it's about whether the experimental practices they've put into play can be adopted and used successfully to help the many.

If labor is against testing out this kind of experiment, then screw them. Lives are at stake. Protecting gang turf doesn't work anywhere. We have to try something to make a change.

ON EDIT: Let me just add that within the fully public system itself, the cream of the crop--like Northside College Prep and Whitney Young (where Michelle Obama went--are only for students who test in the very top ranks to begin with. They are elite schools. (I met a couple at a MoveOn.org event who moved from the suburbs into the city so their kids could attend Whitney Young). Everyone else who doesn't get into these non-charter public magnet schools gets left behind in the garbage dump. At least with some of these charters there is a chance for the kids who are lagging far behind by the time they finish 8th grade to turn things around.

[Hannah Bell]

23. show me your documentation. fact is, the school doesn't draw mainly from that neighborhood.

it draws from the entire city, & most of the students weren't from that neighborhood.

[frazzled]

25. There is absolutely no point to your objection

When you have nothing but negativity and defense of the status quo--and a non-working, failing status quo at that--you'll never improve anything. That's regressive, not progressive.

Neighborhood schools have often been the problem: segregating large numbers of poor kids together in herds stuck in the same gang-ridden neighborhoods. Believe me, no one coming to this school was some doctor's kid from the north shore who wanted to travel to Englewood every day. There's no getting around the statistics that show these were challenged kids: only four percent of them were reading at grade level when they entered. The kid in the opening of the story was failing. Sure, he had a mother who cared that he was failing--but that's not unusual. So put any racist preconceptions aside.

Your protestation that these kids were not all from Englewood, but from surrounding communities, is empty and dispositive of absolutely nothing. My kids used to travel to a school across town because of desegregation. Was there something wrong with that? That I sent my white middle class kids to be in a school with southeast Asian and African American kids because everyone benefited? Do you like the idea of "separate but equal" neighborhood schools? This is a school that is trying out techniques like longer instructional hours, strict dress and behavior codes, strong advising system, and goal-orientation.

Success for failing kids must really irk you on some deep gut level. I know it would be more comforting to you to see the situation as hopeless, to give up on young black males. But that's simply not acceptable.

[Hannah Bell]

28. The point is: THE ARTICLE USES FAKE "FACTS" TO CREATE A FALSE IMPRESSION.

And your smokescreen of bullshit & ad hom does nothing to make those false facts true.

"Poverty, gangs, drugs, crime, low graduation rates, teen pregnancy — you name it, Englewood has it," said Kenneth Hutchinson, the school's director of college counseling, who was born and raised in Englewood.


Sounds like a miracle -- until you learn ONLY 12% of the students come from Englewood -- which the article doesn't tell you, & in fact misleads you into believing otherwise.

The charter isn't enrolling the same students the former school did. Most of its pupils come from OUTSIDE Englewood, & in fact students are drawn from all over Chicago.

They also give the impression that all the boys were together from day one to graduation: but in fact, there was a significant dropout rate.

And as they're willing to use FAKE FACTS in this case, nothing else they say is trustworthy either. Including that "only 4% at grade level". It may be a wonderful school, but if so, why do they have to use FAKE FACTS to sell it?


And, for the record, this: "Success for failing kids must really irk you on some deep gut level. I know it would be more comforting to you to see the situation as hopeless, to give up on young black males. But that's simply not acceptable."

is unmitigated bullshit. I have no such beliefs about young black males.

But CHARTER SCHOOLS don't succeed in any greater numbers than traditional schools.

In fact, the evidence is that charters are less successful, particularly for the poor, minorities, & special needs kids.


Additionally, most tradional schools aren't led by an old-money chicagoan who's able to raise 6 million in addition to regular state per-pupil funding. More than 1 million for every year those kids were in school.

Nor do most schools (especially in poor districts) have those kind of connections: the kind that will grease the skids on a fine level.

but yes, it does make a heartwarming story - that is, at a deep level, completely false.

[immoderate]

20. Good find. And a third of their graduating class disappeared.

They're not very clear about why or where they went.

--imm

[Name removed]

13. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[YvonneCa]

15. Letters?

And welcome to DU.

[dobegrrrl]

24. Intent is to privatize schools

I believe the intent is to privatize schools. Another public good that will eventually fall to corporate greed. Of course the corporatist want to get rid of public ed- imagine if they could begin training kids in kindergarten to be there worker drones. Blaming teachers is part of the plan - replace us with less educated but trained workers that use a script to teach. I am very disappointed that Obama is following the same path, but when he chose Duncan as Sec of Ed it did not bode well for schools.
Beth

[YvonneCa]

26. I worry about this, too, but I hope...

...we are both wrong.

[Ildem09]

27. i worry about this too

instead the opposite needs to happen. make private and homeschooling illegal. when the rich and Christian Taliban have to put their kids in the Public School System then they might care about funding it more... Though to weed out the influence of the Christians I would suggest getting rid of all local and state control of education have the DOE and the NEA create a board of directors.

[Hannah Bell]

29. "hope" is pretty bankrupt at this point. it's happening. less hope, more action.