More WfS Critics- Updated

Last Updated: Sat., Oct. 2, 2pm

You know, I think this Waiting for Superman thing will ultimately work out better for the Real Reformers and against the Deformers. Even noted Ed Deformer Brent Staples, editorial writer for the NY Times, has some words that are not total idiocy for a change - if you extract the super praise for Steve Barr. At least he makes the positive point for why teacher unions were founded in the first place.

And here is Rick Ayers who wrote this great critique of WfS Breaking Down "Waiting for Superman" appears on Democracy Now.

"Waiting for Superman": Critics Say Much-Hyped Education Documentary Unfairly Targets Teachers Unions and Promotes Charter Schools

Waiting for Superman, a new documentary by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim, has caused a stir in the education world for its sweeping endorsement of the charter school movement and attack on teachers unions. President Obama has endorsed the film, describing it as "heartbreaking" and "powerful," but some teachers have called for a boycott of the film for its portrayal of teachers and the teachers union. We speak to Rick Ayers, founder of the Communication Arts and Sciences program at Berkeley High School and adjunct professor in teacher education at the University of San Francisco.

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/10/1/waiting_for_superman_critics_say_much

And here is another video of Diane Ravitch in Los Angeles this week. You don't have to wait for superwoman - she is all over the place (Detroit). Can someone make her a cape with a giant D?



Update: Additional info on Staples piece from Leonie Haimson:

Brent Staples, author of the NY Times editorials on education, and staunch supporter of mayoral control and charter school expansion,  cautions that the film “Waiting for Superman” is overly simplistic in attacking Randi, especially as she has established charter schools in collaboration with Steve Barr, founder of the “Green Dot” chain of charters that started in LA.  (see below).

Staples writes: “Green Dot is one of the stars of this [charter] movement. Despite the fact that many of its 17 schools serve desperately poor, minority neighborhoods, its students significantly outperform their traditional school counterparts, on just about every academic measure, including the percentage of children who go on to four-year colleges. “

Green Dot currently operates 18 schools in Los Angeles, CA and one in the Bronx, NY, according to its website. Yet Green dot has already closed down one of the first five charters it started in LA: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/22/local/la-me-greendot23-2010mar2

 Caroline Grannan, one of the founders of Parents Across America, has analyzed Green Dot’s results. Based on the API, the California Department of Education’s accountability system, the Green Dot schools have mediocre results, and all but one had worse results than the supposedly “failing” LA public schools that Green Dot ran campaigns to take over, through the “parent trigger” measure, led by their fake grassroots organization, Parent Revolution.  (The Parent Revolution is run by Ben Austin, an attorney who works for the city of LA, http://rdsathene.blogspot.com/2009/07/ben-austin-six-figure-salary-man-green.html lives in Beverly Hills, http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_13185224 , has no school age children, is paid $100,000 as a part-time consultant to Green Dot, and yet regularly claims to be a typical, aggrieved LA public school parent.  http://dailycensored.com/2010/04/24/political-patronage-for-green-dot-public-schools-chief-propagandist/. http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/02/parent-revolution-and-green-dot-too.html   

As Caroline writes:
Average API of all Green Dot’s schools (15 total, counting several small schools on one campus, Locke High in Watts): 632 (rounded up to the nearest whole)Average API of the “failing” schools Parent Revolution is targeting with parent trigger campaigns: 670 (rounded down to the nearest whole) ….. By Parent Revolution’s own definition, Green Dot’s other 14 schools [out of 15] are “failing.”

http://www.examiner.com/education-in-san-francisco/14-of-15-green-dot-schools-are-failing-by-parent-revolution-s-definition

According to the LA Times, the achievement results of Locke HS, its most celebrated takeover school have been “lackluster.”, despite substantially increased funding. “First-year scores remained virtually unchanged and exceptionally low.”…. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/aug/17/local/la-me-0817-star-tests-20100817

Moreover, Staples claims that Green Dot charters outperformed traditional public schools in “the percentage of children who go on to four-year colleges.”

Yet Steve Barr admitted that “We only started tracking our graduates during the past year and a half”, in an August 2010 interview published on the Univ. of Phoenix (!) website: http://www.phoenix.edu/uopx-knowledge-network/articles/expert-voices/q-a-steve-barr-founder-of-green-dot-public-schools.html  

I have searched the web for any independent analysis or study that shows that Green Dot has outperformed similar public schools and cannot find any.

This is not to say that these schools may not prove themselves over time, but the claims in this column represent yet another example of the exaggerated hype around charter schools. Someday, Staples might consider talking to some real life NYC public school parents in the same way he apparently communicates with LA-based charter school operators.