Showing posts with label arne duncan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label arne duncan. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Carol Burris, Kathy Cashin, (Holy Cow) Jennifer Jennings on District 15 Panel, Dec. 9: TALKING ABOUT TESTING

I agree with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on just about nothing. I think Race to the Top is an evidence-free mess. I think the idea of a test worth teaching to is a willful misunderstanding of the science of testing. And I can’t agree with Duncan’s insistence that the cheating scandals that have garnered widespread attention in recent months are a parable about “rotten” school cultures and not a reflection on the incentives that we’ve forced upon teachers. But as I sat on the floor of a packed ballroom in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association last week, I was embarrassed—no, humiliated—that some of my colleagues booed the secretary of education when he approached the microphone for his keynote speech.....
You had the grace, the guts, and the patience not to reciprocate [EdNotesWTF].  If there is one lesson from this conference, Secretary Duncan, you showed America’s educational researchers that we can have a different debate—one in which we rely on ideas and open disagreement and reason, and not on schoolyard bravado.... Jennifer Jennings, Edweek, May 6, 2013, http://shar.es/lzWnS.
Jennifer for about 2 years was an active participant in that battle [against ed deform] and her own blog was under assault by the deformers as throwing bricks no matter how artistically she threw them.... Shades of how Randi and Unity Caucus chastised those who booed Bill Gates at the AFT2010 convention.....Ed Notes
 
This should be an interesting panel with Carol Burris, our current top level ed deform fighter, leading the way. And Jennifer Jennings, who I write more about below.

TALKING ABOUT TESTING
A Panel Discussion
hosted by
District 15 Community Education Council & PS 10

December 9, 2015
7-9 pm

Address:  Pre-K 280 for PS 10,
500 – 19th St. at 10th Ave.(formerly the Bishop Ford School)
Brooklyn

Panelists:
Carol Burris, Exec. Dir. Network for Public Education Foundation
Kathleen Cashin**, NY State Regent
Erika Gunderson, Asst. Principal, PS 172
Jennifer Jennings, Asst. Prof. of Sociology, NYU
Anita Skop, Superintendent of Schools, District 15


Panel presentations will be followed by a moderated discussion and Q & A.
BRING YOUR QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS

Note how they now moderate discussions by having people fill out index cards.

How interesting that Jennifer Jennings, our former leading battler against deform back in 2008, turns up at this event. Formerly known as Eduwonkette,  Jennifer was the masked avenger hero for many people in battling ed deform when she blogged anonymously as Eduwonkette in 2008.

eduwonkette Unmasked - NYC - Blogs - Education Week

Education Week
Aug 24, 2008 - You were a tad off.eduwonkette is written by Jennifer Jennings, a final year doctoral student in Sociology at Columbia University. I study many .

How Jennifer Jennings Tried to Cut School-Reform ... - NYC

New York Magazine
Aug 24, 2008 - Just a few days after she handed in her dissertation proposal, Jennifer Jennings, a soft-spoken Columbia sociology grad student who's wicked ...
After being introduced to Jennifer by Leonie Haimson at a rally over a closing of a large high school back in 2007, Jennifer asked me to meet with her to discuss the issues related to closing large schools and she came to some ICE events and we stayed in touch. When she decided to blog she consulted with me over strategies and a few days later she took off and the entire edu-nation became enthralled.

Only a small band of people knew who she was and we kept her secret until she revealed who she was and ended her blog and sort of disappeared. 

Actually, there was a curious Jennifer Jennings sighting when she emerged in 2013 to rebuke those who booed Arne Duncan at the AERA conference when Jennifer publicly apologized to Arne Duncan. 

The AERA conference is the leading yearly event of the chief academic educational research organization and many ed researchers know full well the destructive force unleashed on the American school system by the likes of Arne Duncan. Jennifer says, let's debate not throw bricks. But when one side has hedge fund ballistic missiles and the other has only bricks, to chastise them is so genteel in a world where war has been declared by one side on the other. And active engagement in fighting back on all fronts has actually managed to compensate for the massive tilt of the playing field. Jennifer for about 2 years was an active participant in that battle and her own blog was under assault by the deformers as throwing bricks no matter how artistically she threw them.

Jennifer is academic who clearly is not feeling the direct effects of ed deform on the entire educational community. Nice to Arne (and maybe by extension Eva Moskowitz) is not an option.

Shades of how Randi and Unity Caucus chastised those who booed Bill Gates at the AFT2010 convention.

I wrote back to back blogs on this event in May 2013:
EdNotesOnline: Jennifer Jennings (formerly Eduwonkette) apologizes to Secretary Duncan over the booing at AERA

May 7, 2013 - Jennifer Jennings is one of my favorite people of all time even though I disagree with almost ... Posted by Norm @ ed notes online at 11:38 PM.

Ed Notes Online: When Davids Boo Goliaths Do They Lack

ednotesonline.blogspot.com/.../when-davids-boo-goliaths-do-they-lack.h...
May 8, 2013 - As promised, I'm following up on yesterday's post "Jennifer Jennings (formerly Eduwonkette) apologizes to Secretary Duncan over the booing ...
Ravitch commented here:  Why Did Educators Boo Duncan? Jennings Apologizes.

Here are links to some of the research Jennifer did, with the wonderful Aaron Pallas as her advisor. 

Norm's Notes: Do new small schools in NYC enroll more ...

normsnotes2.blogspot.com/.../do-new-small-schools-in-nyc-enroll-more....
In a new report, NYU professor Jennifer Jennings and Teachers College professor Aaron Pallas ... Posted by ed notes online at Saturday, October 30, 2010 ...

New York City's Small Schools Experiment: Who's Benefiting?

normsnotes2.blogspot.com/.../new-york-citys-small-schools-experiment....
A research presentation by Jennifer Jennings and Aaron Pallas of Columbia University will be ... Posted by ed notes online at Monday, September 21, 2009 ...

Eduwonkette: The Turnaround at Evander Childs: A NYC ...

eduwonkette2.blogspot.com/.../turnaround-at-evander-childs-nyc-small....
Oct 9, 2007 - ed notes online said... How did the NY Times reporter miss this? It is the NY Times' agenda to support BloomKlein so "missing" this is not an ... 
**I don't count former Region 5 supt Cashin as a fighter against deform just yet since when she was in the system as District and Region supt she did so much to support it -- and there are still currently some awful  legacy principals in District 27 from her tenure. But I do believe that former deformers can be redeemed and reformed.)

*In 2008 I attended the one in NYC as Jennifer's stringer while she sat anonymously in the back of the room in front of a panel that included Andrew Rotherham, one of the original chief apologists for ed deform who used his blog Eduwonk as a weapon. When Jennifer went live with her blog, purposely named to chide Rotherham, he was charmed and publicized Eduwonkette widely the very first day - but later turned sour and was one of the chief pursuers trying to flush out her real identity.

Sunday, October 11, 2015

Jeff Bryant: The ugly charter school scandal Arne Duncan is leaving behind

How long before Arne takes a job with the charter industry? These people - and include Chris Cerf and Joel Klein among cast of thousands - are scum.

I love the work Jeff Bryant does. I had the pleasure of hanging at the press table with him at the AFT2014 LA convention.

Thanks to old UFT/school wars pal Julie Woodward for sending this along.



The ugly charter school scandal Arne Duncan is leaving behind

Officials are raising questions about a $249 million grant to charter schools announced the day of his resignation



US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s surprise announcement to leave his position in December is making headlines and driving lots of commentary, but an important story lost in the media clutter happened three days before he gave notice.
On that day, Duncan rattled the education policy world with news of a controversial grant of $249 million ($157 the first year) to the charter school industry. This announcement was controversial because, as The Washington Post reports, an audit by his department’s own inspector general found “that the agency has done a poor job of overseeing federal dollars sent to charter schools.”
Post reporter Lynsey Layton notes, “The agency’s inspector general issued a scathing report in 2012 that found deficiencies in how the department handled federal grants to charter schools between 2008 and 2011″ – in other words, during Duncan’s watch.

 View full article at Salon.com

Friday, October 2, 2015

Happy Days for Opponents of Ed Deform: John King Replaces Arne Duncan

Call the King appointment "Building the national opt-out movement one education secretary at a time."

While some of our troops in the battle against ed deform, particularly those in NY State where King served as state ed commissioner, have been tearing a their hair and rending their clothing at Duncan's replacement - ACTING, I offer cheers for the man who had such an impact in fostering NY State in having the largest opt out movement in the entire nation with 20% opting out (Let's pray for a doubling - or more - this year.)


Some people say we must put up a battle to stop King from being appointed permanently - which will never happen anyway because Obama does not want to see King in front of a Republican committee that will tear him to shreds on common core. King can slog through the next 15 months in the acting role. I say, "celebrate."

King was an executive at Uncommon Schools, which, as Michael Fiorillo points out, "is among the most revanchist of boot camp, behavior modification, student-shaming charter schools."

Someone should ask Hillary if she supports King's appointment and let the merriment begin. Ask Bernie too. Maybe Trump also.

And since King was replaced by Elia can we long forward to Elia replacing King if he crashes and burns?


Here is the NYS Allies for Public Education www.nysape.org
statement.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2, 2015
More information contact:
NYS Allies for Public Education www.nysape.org

US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan Steps Down - New Yorkers Declare John King No Better

The announcement of John King to replace Arne Duncan as US Education Secretary is bad news for the nation, according to NYS Allies for Public Education, a coalition of more than 50 parent and educator groups throughout the state. 

“Throughout his term in New York, John King was notorious for his complete disconnect from parents, teachers, and school officials. His blatant disregard for concerned parents and educators fueled opt outs to historic numbers. Our only hope is that this bizarre move by the White House will have the same effect across the country, spreading the Opt Out movement to every corner of the nation,” said Jeanette Deutermann, Long Island public school parent and founder of Long Island Opt Out. 

“Former NYS Commissioner of Education John King helped create an educational disaster for New York and our children are still feeling the devastating effects,” said Eric Mihelbergel, Erie County public school parent and co-founder of NYSAPE.

“John King was relentless in pushing the inappropriate Common Core standards, flawed curriculum, defective exams, and an invalid teacher evaluation system on our schools, all of which caused more than 200,000 parents to opt out of the state exams last spring,” said Lisa Rudley, Westchester County public school parent.

“King was a catastrophe as New York’s Education Commissioner.  Throughout his administration, his policies were on a constant collision course with parents, teachers and good sense,” said Bianca Tanis, Ulster County public school parent and teacher.

Leonie Haimson, executive director of Class Size Matters, and co-chair of the Parent Coalition to Protect Student Privacy explained, “John King stubbornly refused to listen to concerns of parents, Superintendents, and legislators on the need to protect student privacy, and under his leadership, New York was the only state in the country in which it took an act of the Legislature to compel the state to pull out of inBloom.”

Marla Kilfoyle, a teacher and public school parent on Long Island, pointed out: “King left in disgrace in December 2014, with no political capital remaining and few supporters left.   A year before the state's teachers voted ‘no confidence’ in him and called for his removal by the Board of Regents.”

“The fact that Obama would choose to double-down on the test-driven agenda that King espoused, when polls show voters rejecting these policies in increasing numbers, indicates just how unwilling this administration has been to acknowledge the depth of  parents' opposition to Common Core and high-stakes testing,” said Nancy Cauthen, NYC parent from Change the Stakes.

Jessica McNair, Oneida County public school parent and educator concluded, “This new distressing development makes it even more important that NCLB must be revamped as soon as possible by Congress to take power out of the hands of the Department of Education.  Otherwise, John King will continue to wreak damage on our public school children and their schools.”
 

Friday, April 24, 2015

Principal to Arne Duncan: It's not the teachers unions - ITS YOUR POLICIES - THAT'S WHY WE OPT OUT!!! - and besides - you're a fraud and DFER tool

Dorie Nolt kisses off opt out parents as union influenced
We heard from Rahm Emmanuel all about how bad Chicago schools are - well who was in charge for all those years?? ARNE DUNCAN!  
This came in over the transom to ed notes HQ from a school leader:
I  called Dorie Nolt (dorie.nolt@ed.gov)  the spokeswoman for US Sec. of MIS-Education in DC who was quoted in a Gotham (Chalkbeat) Schools piece  as saying something like "THE PARENTS WHO OPTED OUT IN NY WERE put up to it by the teachers unions"....

I told her that Arne Duncan, her boss, is a fraud and has no record of demonstrated classroom experience.

He is a corporate/DFER tool. 

As she did not like or agree with my assessment of her boss as "a shill with no license nor qualifications " and tried to cut me off repeatedly after I read her her own comments , she just kept thanking me for my service as an educator and a parent... email to ed notes
I told her that 61% of my home district opted out and I doubt she interviewed each and every one of the parents there...we are not all teachers nor beholden to their unions.

I encourage EVERY PARENT WHO SHARES MY OUTRAGE to CALL Dorie Nolt at 202 453-6544... DEMAND AN APOLOGY!!!

Tell her WE KNOW OUR CHILDREN not her and Obama and Duncan his new deputy John King, Cuomo and Tisch.. LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE!!!

Its not the teachers unions- ITS YOUR POLICIES- THAT'S WHY WE OPT OUT!!!

Stick it up your ___ not mine! 
I also called multiple State Senators today to support Sen. Terrance Murphy's "Common Core Parental Refusal Act", which would protect students, teachers, principals, schools and districts from any retaliation or negative consequences from parents exercising their right to opt out.
I called State Sen. John Flanagan about this. I told him that despite proof that annual screening can help us avoid prostate cancer, it was his choice to go and get an annual digital rectal exam. Should other men decide not to - that was their legitimate choice and despite any possible negative consequences down the road - he can stick it up his _____ but has no right sticking it up anyone else's.

Like Charelton Heston yelled in planet of the Apes... This is a   MADHOUSE!!!!!   A MAAAAAAAADHHHOOOUUUSSSEEE!!!

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Updated: Jennifer Jennings (formerly Eduwonkette) apologizes to Secretary Duncan over the booing at AERA

I have heard this before; critiques from the people in power or their apologists saying “why can’t you be more civilized.”  In my mind, it is similar to a well-equipped army that invades your country, takes over your institutions, and then argues with the natives that their resistance is not “civilized” enough. ... Leonie Haimson
Jennifer Jennings is one of my favorite people of all time even though I disagree with almost every word in Jennifer's apology to Duncan which today surprised the world of long-term Real Reform activists battling ed deform. One commentator used the term, "bizarre."

Given Jennifer's former superstar status when she blogged anonymously as Eduwonkette from Sept. 2007 to Aug. 2008 and through her final post in Jan. 2009 under her own name, this was somewhat of a bombshell.

I wouldn't classify this, as some may have, as the reverse of the Ravitch desertion of the ed deform camp but Jennifer's absence from the public discourse over the past 4 years has made people forget just how important she was in debunking so much ed deform in a very short time, to such an extent that a nationwide witch hunt was on to find out her identity, with some of Joel Klein's minions jumping in to attack her on a regular basis.

I haven't seen or heard from Jennifer in years but though I disagree with her here I still consider her a friend. We shared a whole bunch of times together. She attended some ICE meetings and tested out her blog on me before going public and I was one of the very few who knew her identity. We were together when we heard Joel Klein got the Broad Award (she punched me in the arm in frustration). The only AERA conference I attended was here in NY because of her. I posted about Jennifer in Jan. 2009 when she "came" out and I was the first blogger to post about her right after her first blog post came out. She went viral soon after.

But I will talk more about why this story is so interesting and include other reactions in a follow-up and include some thoughts.

If you want to catch up on Eduwonkette's work, here are the links to her initial blog and the one after she was picked up by Edweek.
http://eduwonkette2.blogspot.com/
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/eduwonkette/2009/01/


Ravitch comments here:  Why Did Educators Boo Duncan? Jennings Apologizes.

Before I post any more, read what Jennifer had to say at Edweek.


Published Online: May 6, 2013
Commentary

An Apology to Secretary Duncan

By Jennifer Jennings 

Premium article access courtesy of Edweek.org.

I agree with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan on just about nothing. I think Race to the Top is an evidence-free mess. I think the idea of a test worth teaching to is a willful misunderstanding of the science of testing. And I can’t agree with Duncan’s insistence that the cheating scandals that have garnered widespread attention in recent months are a parable about “rotten” school cultures and not a reflection on the incentives that we’ve forced upon teachers. 

But as I sat on the floor of a packed ballroom in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association last week, I was embarrassed—no, humiliated—that some of my colleagues booed the secretary of education when he approached the microphone for his keynote speech. It is one thing to disagree with some of the Obama administration’s policies, to bring countervailing data to the table, and to engage in reasoned—and, one would hope, enlightened—conversation. It is another thing entirely to abdicate our most sacred responsibility as researchers—a commitment to ideas, to data, to truth, to real debate—at the altar of one-upmanship. 

“I was embarrassed—no, humiliated—when some of my colleagues booed the secretary of education when he approached the microphone for his keynote speech.”

What saddens me is that the educational policy debate has become an overwhelming chorus of boos, of shout-downs, and of bitter personal insults, rather than a real debate about ideas and data and first principles. Unfortunately, this mirrors the direction that most American political debates have leaned in recent years. It is toxic. It is unnecessary. And it is not befitting of a community of researchers who stand in front of students on most days of the week and call ourselves educators. 

I have no senior standing, official office, or public mandate with which to offer this apology, but nonetheless: I’m sorry. I’m sorry that a faceless minority of the educational research community lacked the courage to meet you with ideas rather than with the heckling that is so easy to deploy when you are sitting among hundreds of others, none of whom will ever be called personally to account for their actions. 

You had the grace, the guts, and the patience not to reciprocate.
If there is one lesson from this conference, Secretary Duncan, you showed America’s educational researchers that we can have a different debate—one in which we rely on ideas and open disagreement and reason, and not on schoolyard bravado.

Jennifer Jennings is an assistant professor of sociology at New York University. She is the former author of Education Week's eduwonkette blog.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Arne Duncan Gets Push-Back on Closing Schools

JAISAL NOOR: PUBLIC SCHOOL PARENTS AND STUDENTS FROM 18 CITIES ACROSS THE COUNTRY GATHERED IN WASHINGTON, DC THIS WEEK TO DEMAND A NATIONWIDE MORATORIUM ON SCHOOL CLOSINGS.

FEDERAL PROGRAMS LIKE RACE TO THE TOP OFFERED FINANCIAL INCENTIVES TO CITIES AND STATES FOR RADICALLY CHANGING THEIR SCHOOLS, INCLUDING FIRING STAFF AND SHUTTING SCHOOLS DOWN. WHILE THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TOUTED THE COMPETITIVE MULTI-BILLION DOLLAR PROGRAM AS A WAY TO IMPROVE EDUCATION AND BETTER PREPARE STUDENTS FOR COLLEGE AND THE WORKFORCE, MANY PARENTS, STUDENTS AND TEACHERS SAY THE CHANGES ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY AFFECTING LOW-INCOME COMMUNITIES OF COLOR.

The counter revolution is getting up steam. MORE is also gearing up to push the UFT into more action at the closing schools hearings coming up this month. We ought to have a leaflet unveiled in the next day or two.

Here are some reports, video and print.

Jaisal Noor video report (See below the break for text of his report).
Parents and Students Demand Nationwide Moratorium on Schools Closings
//"Journey for Justice" activists rally in DC to DOE investigate alleged Civil Rights violations in school closings

Chicago Parent and Activist Jitu Brown at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 
//Part 2 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings
 
New Orleans Parent and Activist Karran Harper Royal at "Journey for Justice" Hearing in DC 

//Part 3 of TRN's coverage of the "Journey for Justice" DOE Hearing on School Closings


James Ceronsky in The American Prospect:

Pushing Arne Duncan to Fast-Forward

At a March 15, 2011, sit-down at the Children’s Defense Fund, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent an unequivocal message to black community and faith leaders. “What we’re desperately missing in this country is parents who will demand better for their children,” he said. “I wish to God I had parents knocking on my door every single day saying, go faster, you’re not moving fast enough.”

On Tuesday, community activists from across the country did exactly that. Some 400 students and parents from as far as California descended on Department of Education headquarters to testify on the racialized impact of school closings, turnarounds, and other measures stipulated by federal education funding mandates. Statistically, actions like these tend to affect students of color more than their white counterparts in the same districts. Students displaced by school turnover are forced to cross myriad social boundaries, including gang lines, with little to no precedent of greater academic success in their new environments.

All told, 18 cities—from the East Coast to the West—were represented at the hearing. Activists from roughly 15 of these cities have filed, or are in the process of filing, Title VI civil-rights complaints with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights. These groups are part of the Journey for Justice, a national movement to retake community control of schools.

“This is our Occupy, this is our DREAMers, our LGBT equality, this is all of this wrapped into one,” says Zakiyah Ansari, the advocacy director for New York’s Alliance for Quality Education. “We want this conversation about closures and communities of color to be raised up.”

MORE:
http://prospect.org/article/pushing-arne-duncan-fast-forward

 Bruce Dixon reports on school closings at the Black Agenda Report:

A nationwide epidemic of school closings and teacher firings has been underway for some time. It's concentrated chiefly in poor and minority communities, and the teachers let go are often experienced and committed classroom instructors, and likely to live in and near the communities they serve, and disproportionately black.
It's not an accident, or a reflection of changing demographics, or more educational choices suddenly becoming available to families in those areas. It's not due to greedy unionized teachers or the invisible hand of the marketplace or well-intentioned educational policies somehow gone awry.
The current wave of school closings is latest result of bipartisan educational policies which began with No Child Left Behind in 2001, and have kicked into overdrive under the Obama administration's Race To The Top. In Chicago, the home town of the president and his Secretary of Education, the percentage of black teachers has dropped from 45% in 1995 to 19% today. After winning a couple skirmishes in federal court over discriminatory firings in a few schools, teachers have now filed a citywide class action lawsuit alleging that the city's policy of school “turnarounds” and “transformations” is racially discriminatory because it's carried out mainly in black neighborhoods and the fired teachers are disproportionately black.
How did this happen? Where did those policies come from, and exactly what are they?
More at
http://blackagendareport.com/content/obamas-race-top-drives-nationwide-wave-school-closings-teacher-firings


Note: Compare Bruce's piece with MSNBC"s coverage on Sunday, where they looked at school closings but  didn't mention "Democratic party" or
Barack Obama or Arne Duncan. Besides Zakiyah, none of the guests
demonstrated any knowledgeable of the topic
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46979745/#50606348. And they call that
"mainstream". ---- Jaisal Noor


Hearing at the U.S. Dept of Education for the Journey for Justice civil rights complaint about school closings.  Apparently the testimony from the parents was very powerful.  Eventually the entire hearing will be posted on the internet.  A lot of it is available at the Save Our Schools you tube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/MarchToSaveSchools. --- Rosalie Friend


Jaisal Noor text below

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Arne Duncan Praises Astroturf E4E

The best thing to happen to New Orleans was hurricane Isaac and Educators 4 Excellence. ---@ArneDuncan (satire)

WHEN EDUCATION Secretary Arne Duncan praised Hurricane Katrina a few years ago as the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans--because it enabled the closure of most public schools and their replacement with charter schools--he was forced to apologize.  --- Socialist Worker, Aug. 29, 2012 (not satire)

U.S. Dept. of Ed Secretary Arne Duncan mentions E4E in back to school remarks --- E4E bulletin (not satire but should be)
E4E logo
Astroturf organization E4E is crowing about Arne Duncan noticing them. Yes, as E4E tries to buy its way into schools but fails to fool many teachers into believing E4E is interested in real reform - class size is a no, no, while every single aspect of ed deform is Aplus – the powers that be like Duncan and the NYCDOE keep trying to pump life into them (E4E Buys Its Way Into Schools Using Tweed Contacts). The goal of course is to try to undermine the teacher unions.

E4E certainly doesn't want to even mention the impact on poverty and what activist teachers like those in MORE are doing to bring back the conversation about what this country needs to do about it, something E4E and allies want to bury.

Susan Ohanian has a blurb that counter the E4E/deformer line. Here is an effort to push a deeper conversation about poverty into the mainstream political debate.
Talk About Poverty: Mariana Chilton's Questions for Obama and Romney
Greg Kaufmann
The Nation blog
2012-08-24
http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=1417
And E4E pals faced a protest by real students:
Channel 12 news video: NYC students protest policies & their honoring of anti-immigrant pol

I'm always glad to help my friends at E4E out. They are so excited to report the news as they blared in the headline of their weekly report:
U.S. Dept. of Ed Secretary Arne Duncan mentions E4E in back to school remarks

August 29, 2012 Last week, Arne Duncan stopped by Perry Hall High School (Baltimore, MD) to talk with more than 800 Baltimore County teachers. In his message, Arne mentioned Educators 4 Excellence as an example of how, "As a country, we’re beginning to change those dynamics and teachers are leading the change–through their unions or with grassroots groups like Teach Plus and Educators 4 Excellence."
Watch the clip below (start at 17:31):



Arne certainly knows how to distort things. In Baltimore, over 50% of the teachers were rated unsatisfactory after a new evaluation system (supported by E4E and Duncan - and I bet the union too) was put into place. Do you think E4E will ever get that most teachers do not consider Duncan a friend of teachers?
Duncan and Co. have already wrecked public education in several cities. Detroit's ravaged economy and declining population were as a pretext for an aggressive bipartisan assault that's already led to the closure of 100 schools. Today, Detroit has two school systems--the Detroit Public Schools and a state-run Education Achievement Authority--that compete to attract students, with 35 percent of Detroit kids attending charter schools. In Philadelphia, school authorities, backed by Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter, are seeking to dismantle the entire school system, handing operations over to an array of nonprofit organizations, charter school management groups and academic institutions. ---- Socialist Worker
=========
The opinions expressed on EdNotesOnline are solely those of Norm Scott and are not to be taken as official positions (though Unity Caucus/New Action slugs will try to paint them that way) of any of the groups or organizations Norm works with: ICE, GEM, MORE, Change the Stakes, NYCORE, FIRST Lego League NYC, Rockaway Theatre Co., Active Aging, The Wave, Aliens on Earth, etc.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Duncan Playing With NCLB Rules is Blatant (and illegal) Attempt to Forcefeed States into More Ed Deform

 Arne Duncan announced that any state promising to lower class size drastically would be eligible for relief from onerous NCLB laws.

NOT!!!!!

In fact, the only states eligible are those meeting the ed deform agenda being pushed by the Obama Admin - and hey gang - let's not make believe that somehow Duncan and Obama are not on the same page- like calls for firing Duncan meam anything. That was one of the weak areas of SOS - the focus on Duncan and not on Obama. How interesting that Obama sat by helpless while Republicans gutted us while he is so blatantly willing to break the law on education. (Like how about him just declaring the debt ceiling is raised and Go Fuck yourselves!) Yes, he views us as patsies.

Well, a lot of people are not buying the Obama/Duncan doodoo.

National organization Parents Across America rejects Duncan's "waiver" proposal and calls for complete overhaul of No Child Left Behind 

The national organization Parents Across America opposes the proposal by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan to offer "waivers" to states, exempting them from provisions of the law known as No Child Left Behind if they adopt education policies favored by Duncan.  

While Parents Across America (PAA) agrees that No Child Left Behind is an unrealistic, rigid and punitive law, the waivers that Duncan has now proposed are likely to be equally bad, if not worse. The Department of Education could force more states to adopt the Common Core Curriculum thus continuing to ignore the fact that it is illegal for the federal government to impose a national curriculum. The proposal is also likely to expand the destructive agenda of over-testing, school closings, and privatization, despite the fact that these policies have no scientific evidence to support them and are causing tremendous distress in communities across the nation.   

Natalie Beyer, school board member in Durham NC, says: “Parents agree that American students are spending too much class time on standardized testing, but these new proposals would do nothing to help.  Instead, the proposed waivers would further extend federal control over local school issues.  We request a study from the General Accounting Office of how much No Child Left Behind has already cost states and local districts and the estimated costs of implementing Common Core Standards under Race to the Top.  We implore Congress to include parents, teachers and students in an immediate thorough overhaul of NCLB before going any further down this dangerous road.”   

Adds Leonie Haimson, Executive Director of Class Size Matters, “Duncan’s heavy-handed and prescriptive approach would only continue the trend of spending billions to build up the bureaucracy and provide excessive profits to testing companies and consultants, while teachers are being laid off and class sizes are growing throughout the country Whether the system of rewards and punishments will be based on value-added test scores instead of absolute goals, the result is the same for our schools and our children: more money and time spent on testing and test prep instead of real learning.”

Says Karran Harper Royal of the Pyramid Community Parent Resource Center in New Orleans, where more than 70% of students now attend charter schools, “Race to the Top has been far worse than NCLB and has done little to help our most academically needy students.  Yet what Arne Duncan is now proposing through these “waivers” could produce even worse outcomes for our children.” 

Rita Solnet of Palm Beach County School District Curriculum Council agrees:  “Numerous studies conclude that incentives linked to high stakes tests do not increase learning.  In fact, long term studies conclude this leads to a climate of cheating and gaming the system to survive. Every month we read of another major cheating scandal created by high-stakes testing.  Stop wasting taxpayer money on failed policies. I am pleased Secretary Duncan acknowledged the destructive flaws within NCLB.   NCLB is a train wreck. Let's not replace it with another one. Let's do this the right way so every child,  regardless of disability, ELL status, family income level can be assured a high quality public education delivered by respected professionals."

 Pamela Grundy of Mecklenburg Area Coming Together in Charlotte, NC concludes, “We need real reforms based on evidence, and partnerships with parents, teachers and communities, not a unilateral and autocratic agenda imposed from above. As parents watching our children’s education suffer, we are saying, “Enough.”

And at Schools Matter

R Lucido: price of NCLB waiver - agree to much worse Race to the Top

Rog Lucido: The feds are offering "a waiver from an oppressive and failed NCLB policy only to be switched to a much more sinister and stifling program."
Sent to the Fresno Bee:

Yesterday Education Secretary Duncan admitted that this year 82% of America’s schools will have failed under NCLB’s test and punish provisions, which he called an ‘impediment’. So, he is going to offer waivers so that our 100,000 schools who are receiving federal funds (approx. 5-10% of their budgets) will not have to meet NCLB’s test score provisions and the associated sanctions. He admitted that the law is faulty and schools need to be free from this ‘impediment’. But there is a price to pay for the waiver. He will gladly give schools a waiver only if they agree to more testing to judge students, teachers, schools and districts, adopt a new set of standards, then the states would need to replace NCLB’s test score targets with their own. Surprise! These are the core requirements of the ominous and educationally perverted ‘Race to the Top’, which is his blueprint for the replacement of NCLB.
This is nothing more than ‘bait and switch’ applied to education. Offer a waiver from an oppressive and failed NCLB policy only to be switched to a much more sinister and stifling program. States, parents and teachers need to reject this ploy to regain their educational autonomy.

 

Education Radio Blog Launches!

Stay tuned for more information about upcoming shows...our debut show will focus on the issues, people and events of the July 2011 Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action.
 http://education-radio.blogspot.com/
 ======

Check out Norms Notes for a variety of articles of interest: http://normsnotes2.blogspot.com/. And make sure to check out the side panel on right for news bits.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Who Will Cast the First Stone?

by Norm Scott
Posted Aug. 20, 2010, last revised, Aug. 21, 9am.

Arne Duncan today announced a one billion dollar supplementary Race To The Top competition. 

The winner will be the first state to have a teacher with extremely low test scores stoned to death. "This technique has been highly successful when used by the Taliban," said Duncan. "While we don't have data – for obvious reasons  – we are guessing that test scores have improved in the areas of Afghanistan where this has been tried."

"Brilliant," proclaimed The Wall Street Journal.

Brent Staples of the NY Times was more reserved. "While this is not a proven tactic to close the achievement gap, we feel the plan holds a lot of promise."

Duncan explained the details. "The money will come from private funding so it will not cost the government a cent – other than the cost of the stones, which we will provide. We will have an auction and the winner will get to cast the first stone."

Hedge fund millionaires and charter school operators, whose teachers are exempt, were already lining up for the bidding war. Bill Gates and Eli Broad are expected to have the advantage.

"We will insist that the people most hurt by the teacher chosen to participate will play a major role in the stoning. Children and their parents MUST be included as part of the process," said Duncan.

"Children First," proclaimed Joel Klein in dissent. Klein later rescinded when Duncan said New York City would be one of the cities allowed to compete. Klein said he would go along with the plan to allow the highest bidder to be the first to toss a stone but clung to a Children Second program. Mayor Bloomberg offered to pick up the cost of the stones to give New York an edge.

AFT president Randi Weingarten was critical. "We don't feel this is productive. Teachers need a seat at the table and should be part of the process in choosing the teacher to be stoned."

Weingarten made the  point that the union had managed to convince the Obama administration to put a limit of one stoning a year.

"Outrageous," said UFT high school VP Leo Casey. "Incredibly, they wanted to stone 10 teachers. TEN!" he screeched. "But we stopped them in their tracks."


After burn
For a critical look at the LA Times article revealing teacher names:
http://californiawatch.org/watchblog/test-scores-and-ethics-outing-teachers-1097#comment-3634

For support see John Merrow, PBS correspondent- a sign of where Gates funding controls the debate on public TV and radio

Friends,
The LA Times article linking teachers by name with student scores has caused a firestorm among educators and reporters, but I maintain that every savvy person has known for years--long before bubble tests and so-called 'value added' measures, which teachers were cutting it, and which weren't. Think how hard parents fight, and always have, to get certain teachers for their kids. I think administrators are getting off lightly here--they've known who their bad teachers were but haven't done enough to retrain them or move them out of the profession. It's not 'the big bad unions' that deserve all the blame, much as some would like that to be the story. Here are my thoughts, and some strong disagreements from readers too:  http://bit.ly/9t6Eq9  Please respond on the blog itself.
Thanks, and best wishes,
John

John Merrow
Education Correspondent,
PBS NewsHour, and President,
Learning Matters, Inc

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

CHARTER SCHOOL PARENTS PROTEST DUNCAN’S VISIT TO NYC CHARTER SCHOOL

UPDATED May 19, 9am

"Now I understand how it is that Secretary Duncan says there is zero opposition to his charter school proposals. Today, Secretary Duncan deemed me a zero.”
Leslie-Ann Byfield, charter school parent

"Uncommon Schools does not allow Parent Associations of any kind. We have been helping a parent at the Kings Collegiate School for several months. We need far more transparency and a voice for parents at all charter schools, to stop their abusive practices. Secretary Duncan should explain what he is going to do to ensure that corporate chicanery, corruption and financial mismanagement does not happen at charter schools, and should have addressed the plight of the parents at Kings Collegiate when he visited that school. That would show he truly cares about our children!"
Mona Davids, President of the NY Charter Parents Association

May 18, 4pm

Arne was in town today to visit his Chicago school gangsterism on 3 schools in Brooklyn. Interesting story in the Daily News on Randi Weingarten's involvement in forcing Duncan to change his schedule - which gives you pause as to who is running the UFT. One would have thought Mulgrew would take the lead on that. But Randi may have been feeling that she was no longer loved in NYC and had to jump in to get a little local pub.

Now it is interesting how the Daily News article mentions a parent who loves the harsh discipline at KC. Just the kind of thing Arne and Barack love for children – that are not their own. I can imagine the Obamas' reaction if their children were subjected to zero tolerance. And imagine how they would love not having to waste time having a PA at their school.

I got there at 12:40 to meet Leonie and some parents just as the press was being allowed in and I decided to join them as a reporter for the Wave. I mean, it was raining pretty hard and it doesn't take much to move me from activist protester to reporter. Bloomberg, Klein, Duncan, political hangers on like Malcolm Smith, etc. were all present. Duncan is tall and Bloomberg is short. Klein is - well - you know. Numbnuts.

I saw my favorite Tweed press crew who vouched for me since I left my Wave press pass home. I had a nice conversation, as I always have, with James Merriman who heads the NYC Charter School Center. We agree on so much. And so little. But I'll delve into that some other time.

The public school in the building is Somers MS, but that part of the building didn't get visited. Maybe next life. As the charter school grows Michael Kay will be brought in from the Yankee games to say "See ya" to Somers.

Leonie Haimson, Khem Irby and Leslie-Ann Byfield did get there and came up but were told this was only for press and went down to wait. I was trailing the pack and missed Khem and Leslie confronting Duncan but I do have some other video which I will cut and post on you tube later with a link to this post.

See the updated press release from Leonie and her account of the day at the NYCParent Blog:

Waiting in the rain for Arne: my day with charter parents

And check out NYC Educator's take on Duncan:

Duncan Doesn't Think Anyone Opposes Charter Schools


The Skeleton in Arne Duncan's Closet
Bracey is gone but his words live on through Substance from Susan Ohanian

http://susanohanian.org/outrage_fetch.php?id=616

Thanks to David Bellel for the graphic.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Millot: Sound Decision or Censorship at TWIE (II)


by Marc Dean Millot


Please be assured that this isn't really about you or the substance of your post. 
Issues of transparency and accountability have been raised by several folks including hess and edweek…


you try and make it seem to yourself like this is about some higher issue, but it's really just ego and refusing to acknowledge your role.


Readers might reasonably guess that the first quote is from someone who supports the argument I made on February 10 in School Matters http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/02/millot-sound-decision-or-censorship-at.html; the second from someone who does not. Both quotes can be found here. In a sense they would be right. The first is part of This Week in Education (TWIE) http://www.thisweekineducation.com/ Editor Andrew Russo’s email to me of 11:06 AM (Saturday the day after he pulled “Three Data Points. Unconnected Dots or a Warning?” . (http://borderland.northernattitude.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/millot_warning.pdf) from his blog. The second, his email of 11:55 PM Monday, sent after firing me from TWIE. (A complete email record can be found here. (http://www.scribd.com/doc/26695687/Millot-Russo-Email-Communications-February-5-9-2010)) A new man can emerge over 60 hours – especially when he’s under pressure.


Why did Russo pull the post? The short answer, at least the short answer Russo offered over the phone Saturday, lies in his contract with Scholastic. TWIE is not editorially independent. Scholastic decides what will remain on his blog. On Friday afternoon, Russo’s point of contact at Scholastic (I was not taking notes and can’t remember his name) received a call from Andrew Rotherham with the charge he made on Eduwonk (LINK NOW BROKEN) (http://www.eduwonk.com/2010.02/hogworts-on-the-hudson.html)). Russo thought the relationship might have a personal dimension. The contact called Russo and told him to pull the post, a call Russo had received three times since he moved TWIE to Scholastic in late 2007. This was Friday afternoon, Russo was on his way to a mountain weekend, so he did what he was told, hoping to walk the cat back by Monday.


Why did Russo decide to keep my post off TWIE on Friday and fire me Monday? That’s a longer story.


As I’ve admitted before I have an interest in the case. This is why I released a complete record of our email communications to the education media and posted on the web. With the exception of a Saturday morning phone call - that I will do my best to recall in this post, email constitutes the complete record of our discussions. I also believe that there’s more at stake than my reputation. This case offers an unusual opportunity for readers to look at the sausage factory of debate over federal education policy, the role of the new philanthropy in education reform, and the idea of commercially viable, editorially independent “grass roots” or “small business” sites for news and commentary in public education – sites that are not the web extension of mainstream print media.


I’ve known Alexander Russo for several years. Our relationship has been conducted almost entirely by email. We’ve never met face-to-face, and rarely used the phone. We are not social acquaintances, but business colleagues, and asynchronous communications have worked well. We are different, yet similar. Aside from the usual differences in age and experience, our styles differ. Alexander once described his blog style as “snark,” I’d call it “edgy.” He didn’t define snark, but based on observations of his blog, I’d characterize it as brief comments, narrowly tailored “zings” that hit the best or weakest substantive point of the object of his writing and the very button of the object most likely to elicit pleasure or pain. I’d describe myself as more linear and formalistic, and more inclined to nail every point to the floor with every argument, form every perspective I can think of.


We manage to share something of a “bad boy” image, although he’s probably more in the style of Billy Idol (to date myself). There’s an insider quality, but also a flavor of the guy who slipped into the party through the back door, and allowed to stay because no one has to accept responsibility for his invitation. He’s the guy who portrays himself as part of the establishment but independent of it. I too have an inside/outside image. I’ve held reasonably senior positions in some well-established institutions on matters of market-based school reform since the early 1990s. I’ve been called “pugilistic.”


Russo and I also share a real interest in the commercial possibilities of web-based media in public education, its potential for opening up the communications infrastructure affecting policy decision fora, and enormous skepticism in what I’ve called the new philanthropy’s keiretsu.

(http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edbizbuzz/2008/02/deconstructing_a_social_keiret.html) I am not entirely sure of the basis for Russo’s doubts. Mine are based on strong doubts about the financial viability of the organizations and models that have received their investment, the broad implications of their failing investment strategy for the kind of market in public school improvement I’ve worked for and – strongly related to my business assessment, the social implications of their top-down centralized management philosophy.


Russo’s and my experimentation with business models led to different outcomes. Based on my experience at New American Schools, I started K-12Leads and Youth Service Markets, a low-cost (and of course high-quality) RFP reporting service for organizations providing school improvement and similar niche-market services. Russo developed This Week in Education into a web-based news and commentary business, ultimately sponsored by Scholastic.


Start: Friday, April 13, 2007


Move to Edweek, September 10


I tried to get a k-12 news and commentary business going, tried School Improvement Industry Weekly,” a web-enabled publication, tried a podcast, and wrote a market-oriented blog on my own (http://archive.edbizbuzz.com/blog )


and for edweek.org called edbizbuzz. (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edbizbuzz/2007/09/)


I enjoyed them immensely, but my style of blogging is simply too costly to be a hobby. In the end I could not find a plausible financial model, and wasn’t as savvy about the business as Russo.


I admire Russo’s entrepreneurship, and the way he’s built a business around his “edgy” style. The difference between TWIE and every other k-12 news aggregator has been Russo. I’d say he is edgy, chose to cultivate an edgy personae, attracted a growing readership that likes him edgy, and found a source of competitive advantage in the media business in the perception that he is edgy. Scholastic’s decision to invest in him surely had something to do with the fact his edgy approach has appealed to the demographic of young, internet-dependent educators that will be making the big purchasing decisions within the next decade.


I moved edbizbuzz to edweek.org in September 2007, When Russo announced his move from edweek.org to Scholastic in 2008, I posted a comment,

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/edbizbuzz/2007/11/education_blogs_and_the_school.html


excerpted below:

What Russo has done, in effect, is to launch what I think is the first independent commercial blogsite sponsored by a direct relationship with one advertiser. … Over the next several years a teaching force that got its information via paper media is being replaced with one that relies far more on the internet. Buying into a blog like TWIE is cheap. If it takes off, the investment will have a disproportionate payoff….. (Uncompensated) unaligned bloggers' value-add/competitive advantage has been adopting the independent strategy. As the first professional k-12 blogger to choose free agency in our market, Russo has a special responsibility to stay on the straight and narrow.


Little did I know that I’d be a test case.


Over the years Russo and I read and occasionally cited and commented on each other’s blogs. I stopped blogging in October of 2008. My one-year agreement with edweek was up, I had several family issues taking a great deal of my energies, and the time required to maintain a daily blog had hurt my business. I decided to stop for a while, but Russo and I stayed in touch.


My agreement in November, 2009 to write a weekly or so column for TWIE was prompted by the fact that the original draft of Tom Toch’s report on CMOs for Education Sector had come into my possession. The differences between Toch’s draft and the final report issued by EdSector were so vast, the events leading to the second draft so unethical, and the fact both so well-hidden that I felt obligated to make the original draft public. I emailed Russo intending to provide him with a scoop, and ended up agreeing to his offer to write a weekly column, over which would have complete editorial control, for $200 a month, for six months.


Did I mention that I’m a lawyer? My view is that if people intend to do what they say, they’ll put it in writing. The monthly payment was relevant to me in that I did not want to write for free, but it was important to me to reinforce that we had a contract that gave me editorial control. The six-month period was enough time to see how this arrangement would work, and not long enough to stick one of us in a position we didn’t like. In my view, Russo’s willingness to do this was based on a sense that I might help keep his blog interesting with original content, that he knew my approach and trusted my judgment, and that it was another manifestation of his edgy style.


I proceeded to write a series of series on problems in the charter school markets the academic fraud of EdSectors CMOs report, Imagine Schools violation of state laws concerning charter a nonprofit governance, and the Massachusetts Board of Education’s abuse of the chartering process. All were pretty aggressive. I was under no illusion that opponents of charter schools, privatization, and Edsector would use them to advantage. But I’ve never thought that pretending bad actors don’t exist served a helpful role with the vast majority of people who have no made up their minds. Moreover, I don’t want a market dominated by bad actors, and I’m not going to sit on my hands and let it happen. None of my work led Russo to suggest he should have a formal role in the editorial process. And neither Russo nor I were naive – we expected push back from the subjects of my posts


This lengthy discussion provides a context for Russo’s decisions during the February 5-9 period. They are not isolated events, but a predictable point in the trajectory of his business model.


TWIE readers and I had every reason to believe Russo retained editorial control under his contract with Scholastic. He didn’t publish the contract, but TWIE seemed to operate pretty much as it had at edweek.org and as a standalone blog before. And there’s this November interview with Scholastic Administr@tor Executive Editor Kevin Hogan in Publishing Executive’s INBOX (http://www.pubexec.com/article/scholastic-administr-tor-enters-blogosphere-executive-editor-kevin-hogan-adding-popular-blogger-his-team-83070/2) column:


INBOX: What contractual/payment arrangements were made with Russo?


HOGAN: His arrangement is essentially the same as you would find for contributing editors in the print world.

INBOX: What process have you established for comments on the blog? Are they moderated by someone on the magazine staff, or does Russo handle the moderating/posting of comments?


HOGAN: People are free to leave comments, anonymous or not, on the blog page. Russo handles any moderating that needs to happen. Also, it’s important to note that Alexander is his own editor, and his blog is completely independent from the opinions of the rest of the magazine staff or of Scholastic at large. (Millot’s emphasis)


So why did Russo keep my post off TWIE and fire me from the blog? As a business matter he had no choice. His contract required him to pull it. He could not persuade his contact at Scholastic to change his mind. Forced between two contractual breeches, economics required him to breach mine. As he approached that point of decision he began to reconsider the substantive merits of the matter.


I understand his business decision. There’s a moral element to all this, but in so far as Alexander Russo is concerned I’m prepared to set that aside. I think he made a bad business decision. Russo cultivated an “edgy” independent image. TWIE’s popularity is based on Russo. Taking my post down on Scholastic's orders rather than the merits undermines Russo’s “bad boy” personae. People might see him as someone who did not demonstrate independence when it mattered, and gave way to Rotherham’s charge without a fight. That image offers no competitive advantage to TWIE.


Next: on Tuttle SVC (http://www.tuttlesvc.org/) – Andrew Rotherham’s role or, the tip of an iceberg.


Ed Note: by Norm Scott

See part 1 in this series at Schools Matter:
Millot: Sound Decision or Censorship at TWIE? (I)

Millot put up a complete email communication transcript between he and Russo at:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26695687/Millot-Russo-Email-Communications-February-5-9-2010

Background information on this story and how I came to be involved at Ed Notes:


Oh What a Tangled Web: Millot, Russo and Rotherham Battle As Millot Charges Arne with Conflict of Interest


This story is more important to regular Ed Notes readers than might appear on the surface. It exposes fault lines in the relationship between the education business model supporters and profiteers and their ability to control editorial content telling the story. Millot tells us exactly where he is coming from and exposes the leash Scholastic has on Alexander Russo (who I met for the first time at the Gotham Schools party in December).


Ed Notes reported on Millot's story at TWIE on Dec. 3, 2009 exposing the gap between the Toch original report and what was published at the Ed Deform EdSector as I tried to connect a bunch of dots for readers of this blog:


School Closings, ATRs, Charters, Rubber Rooms Are All Snakes in the Same Basket


Millot and I may be on different sides of the street (many readers will ask why we need more lawyers commenting on education) but he is not necessarily a narrow ideologue (like I am). He has

"enormous skepticism in the new philanthropy’s keiretsu" and has "strong doubts about the financial viability of the organizations and models that have received their investment, the broad implications of their failing investment strategy for the kind of market in public school improvement I’ve worked for and – strongly related to my business assessment, the social implications of their top-down centralized management philosophy."

This excerpt is extremely interesting and shows where Millot is coming from:

"I proceeded to write a series of series on problems in the charter school markets the academic fraud of EdSectors CMOs report, Imagine Schools violation of state laws concerning charter a nonprofit governance, and the Massachusetts Board of Education’s abuse of the chartering process. All were pretty aggressive. I was under no illusion that opponents of charter schools, privatization, andEdsector would use them to advantage. But I’ve never thought that pretending bad actors don’t exist served a helpful role with the vast majority of people who have no made up their minds. Moreover, I don’t want a market dominated by bad actors, and I’m not going to sit on my hands and let it happen."

Well, we think they are mostly all bad actors no matter how benign they may appear, with the NYCDOE being the baddest actor of all. And, yes. Ed Notes, GEM and so many others who are "opponents of charter schools, privatization, and Edsector" and yes, as the infantry of The Resistance movement, will use this to our advantage as we are in hand-to-hand combat. But how can we not appreciate Millot when he says: I don’t want a market dominated by bad actors, and I’m not going to sit on my hands and let it happen."


[One interesting side panel to this story is how some vehement charter school parent supporters have been coming to us anti-charter activists in NYC with stories of horrible treatment of kids by charter school operators and want it exposed because they feel the charter school movement as a whole will be compromised.]


[Second interesting side panel is the contrast between how these discussions at the policy level differ from those at Ed Notes, GEM, ICE, etc. where the rubber meets the road as we battle charter school invasions on a daily basis. Our latest is over Girls Prep -look for my video, see the parent video on the side panel and see accounts of that Feb. 11 meeting and some interesting stats I just published on the GEM blog (Girls Prep Charter and District One: Who is at risk?) put together by parent activist Lisa Donlan (no, not all people opposed to charters are union flunkies).

Alexander Russo actually lives in Brooklyn and has the opportunity to do some real reporting by attending the numerous charter school and school closing hearings and PEP meetings. But now we have to ask: could he really report on what he sees and still keep his gig?]


Andrew Rotherham, who Millot will savage (I hope) in part 3, is a Democratic party ed deformer who worked in the Clinton administration. 'Nuff said for education progressives who have a shred of hope in the Democrats for true ed reform.

When all parts of this story are out I'll put up links in the sidebar. It might turn into a book, especially if we don't lose sight of the fact that Millot's original post that was pulled exposed Arne Duncan's conflict of interest. Are we heading to Duncangate, Arnegate? Andy(Rotherham)gate, Russogate? I hope old buddy Eduwonkette is following this trail and getting a few chuckles.

More blogger reactions here and here.