Ed Notes Online: Brooke Parker exposes sham of @CenturyFoundation report on "diversity by design" charter schools

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Brooke Parker exposes sham of @CenturyFoundation report on "diversity by design" charter schools

the corporation was projected to receive a total of about $5.6 million dollars by 2016, with more than half of these funds to be provided by NYC taxpayers. ...charter school carpetbaggers attempted to exploit some of the fears of white parents moving into an area with public schools composed of mostly Black and Hispanic students.... For all their talk of diversity, their internal leaked “marketing plan” identified their primary targets in Williamsburg as “Middle/Upper income/predominantly White” and in Crown Heights, “middle/upper income" parents.....Brooke Parker

Exposing charter school scams is some of our favorite reading. I've known Brooke Parker for many years through our Williamsburg connections. She is relentless. Leonie publishes her latest on her blog.

Leonie writes:

Brooke Parker exposes sham of Century Foundation report on "diversity by design" charter schools via leaked Citizens of the World marketing plan and exorbitant fees..
Please share!

Here is Leonie's introduction on the blog:

Here is a column by Brooke Dunn Parker, Brooklyn parent activist, about a recent controversial report by the Century Foundation, which identified 125 charter schools that are supposedly “diverse by design” – though on the whole, most analysts find that charters have had a segregating effect, according to the AP, NBC News, and the UCLA Civil Rights Project.

Moreover, this list of 125 schools was selected from 5,692 charter schools – only a tiny number. The methodology is also questionable. The authors identify these schools by analyzing their enrollment, websites and survey responses from school leaders. Though the Century Foundation sent their survey about diversity to 971 charter schools, only 86 responded – which means that nearly 40 schools were put on the list even though the school leaders couldn’t be bothered to answer their survey.
Several Success Academy charter schools were included on their list, including Success Academy Upper West, which has had multiple civil rights complaints lodged by parents against it. Finally, the report was financed by the Walton Foundation, the largest private funder of charter schools, who no doubt would like to whitewash their poor record of civil rights abuses. Please read the Network for Public Education and Schott Foundation report on how many charter schools violate students’ civil rights.

Check out Brooke’s dive into the issue, informed by her experience with one of the supposedly “diverse by design” charter networks highlighted in the report, Citizens of the World Charter Schools. Brooke has previously written about these schools on our blog, here and here.

https://nycpublicschoolparents.blogspot.com/2018/06/brooke-parker-exposes-sham-of-century.html

Brooke Parker has fought and exposed Citizens of the World charter when they invaded Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They used Eva Moskowitz' husband, Eric Grannis. Ed Notes published a bunch of stuff on the family scam.

Here is one on Brooke I published back in 2012:


Eric Grannis, Eva Moskowitz husband.

WAGPOPS Brilliant Expose of Citizens of the World Charter Ponzi ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/.../wagpops-brilliant-expose-of-citizerns.htm...

We believe that there is a place in public education for charter schools, but Citizens of the World is bastardizing the original intent of charter schools. ...

Brooke left this comment on the role Eric Grannis played:
Eric Grannis didn’t start it, but he created an organization, Tapestry, that made introductions between the “community,” the charter network that already existed in California, and SUNY. Tapestry was designed to help open charters in North Brooklyn, a district where we already had the most charters outside of Harlem. Tapestry’s marketing led many of us to believe that they were particularly interested in getting white gentrifying families invested in opening charters for their kids. - Brooke Parker

and a few more ed notes pieces:

Community Outrage: What is Eva Moskowitz's husband Eric Grannis ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/01/community-outrage-what-is-eva.html

Jan 27, 2012 - There is so much going on around the Eva Moskowitz Success Charter invasion of Williamsburg (and Cobble Hill) that I could do 5 blogs a day.

Ed Notes Online: Eric Grannis (Eva Hubby) Charter Failure - Two ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2017/.../eric-grannis-eva-hubby-charter-failure.ht...

Dec 18, 2017 - Eva Moskowitz' was involved in the scheme early on, as Brooke Parker from WAGPOPS reports: Eric Grannis didn't start it, but he created an ...

Ed Notes Online: Trashing Citizens of the World Scam Charter ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2013/.../trashing-citizens-of-world-scam-charter.ht...

Trashing Citizens of the World Scam Charter Scheme. As registration is happening for citizens of the world (part of Eva Moskowitz empire), if you could circulate these negative articles and have everyone click on them, it would be very helpful. We need to let everyone know that there is significant opposition.

Ed Notes Online: Parents Opposed to Citizens of the World Charter ...

https://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2012/12/parents-opposed-to-citizens-of-world.html

Dec 5, 2012 - Parents Opposed to Citizens of the World Charter: Hundreds, Parents in Favor: 4. The NY State Dept. would allow the Hitler Youth Charter to breeze through and not only would they authorize the Ku Klux Klan Charter School for Racial Harmony but they would wash the sheets. -- Norm at charter hearing.

And here is a Daily News piece:

Charter school boss Eva Moskowitz's husband's group seeks to open ...

www.nydailynews.com/.../moskowitz-hubby-open-new-charter-schools-nabe-success-... Feb 27, 2012 - Group affiliated with Success head Eva Moskowitz's husband Eric Grannis is also looking to open a charter school in Williamsburg. (Bryan ...

No comments:

"A Black Agenda Radio commentary by Glen Ford

What media call "philanthropy" for the public schools are actually seed monies to establish a private "market" in publicly-financed education - an enterprise worth trillions if successfully penetrated by corporate America. Cory Booker, one of the "New Black Leaders" financed by the filthy rich, is key to creating a "nationwide corporate-managed schools network paid for by public funds but run by private managers.

"Ed Reformers" want to cash in on public education and to control its content and outcome, not improve it. Provide great education? Baby boomers had as close as this country has ever gotten to it when we were growing up. The Ed Reform Movement has no interest in seeing such a well-educated, democratically astute population ever again.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/cory-booker-clear-and-present-threat-public-education

History of the UFT Pre-Weingarten Years

This award-winning series of articles by Jack Schierenbeck originally appeared in the New York Teacher in 1996 and 1997.

Naturally, from a certain point of view. But, despite certain biases, Schierenbeck, a great guy, was one of the best NY Teacher reporters so this is worth reading. Jack suffered a debilitating stroke many years ago (I used to get secret donations to ed notes from him through a 3rd source.)

This chapter looks interesting:

Class struggles: The UFT story, part 3

“The schism in the union over radical politics [is] a major reason for stalling the growth of a teacher union for decades.” Revolutionary politics and ideology take center stage, as the original Teachers Union becomes a battlefield, pitting leftist against leftist and splitting the union.

Clarence Taylor's "Reds at the Blackboard" focused on the old Teachers Union which disbanded in 1964 after suffering from anti-left attacks.

Of course for another view, check out the review at New Politics of the Kahlenberg Bio on Shanker by Vera Pavone and me: Albert Shanker: Ruthless Neocon

Effective Union Organizing

A video series put together by Jason Mann from the British Columbia Federation of Teachers about social media and how to use it for effective union organizing.

The first series was called New Media For Union Activists Roadmap and it's still available on-line at:
http://www.newmediabootcamp.ca/welcome/
I watched some of them and need to rewatch as they are loaded with information.

The second series started last week and it's called "Online Campaigning for Union Activists"

You can sign up for this free series at :
http://act.bcfed.ca/online-campaigning-for-union-activists/

You Don't Have A Choice - Join the Revolt

Ex-Harlem Success Teacher Comments on Eva the Diva

Ex-HSA Teacher has left a new comment on your post "Fear and Loathing at Evil's Harlem Success Empire ...":

I am a former Harlem Success teacher. Not many people who work/worked for her like her very much. I once made the comment that she is very nice when I first was hired. Two of her closest colleague responded immediately almost in unison, "Eve is not nice!" Over time I realized that there was a lot of political games going on. Another colleague once said to me that he was tired of "being part of a political campaign." Sending out 15,000 applications for only 400 seats in a school is reprehensible. The money that paid for those mass mailings could have paid the yearly salary of another teacher not to mention the heartache of all those parents who applied but did not get a spot. She does good work trying to give disadvantaged students a quality public school education but at a great cost to staff AND the school's educational budget! school budget.

Davis Guggenheim Compared to Riefenstahl

“Waiting for Superman" is the second most intellectually dishonest piece of documentary work I have seen. It is surpassed only by Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will," the pro-Hitler propaganda classic, in that regard. Uses personal narratives of adorable children to create narrative suspense that overrides public policy discussion with pure emotion in unscrupulous attack on teachers and their unions, among others

Timothy Tyson
Professor of African American Studies and History
Duke University

How Teaching Experience Makes a Difference

Even as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Michelle Rhee and others around the nation are arguing for experienced teachers to be laid off regardless of seniority, every single study shows teaching experience matters. In fact, the only two observable factors that have been found consistently to lead to higher student achievement are class size and teacher experience, so that it’s ironic that these same individuals are trying to undermine both.
- Leonie Haimson on Parents Across America web site

Full article with charts here.

Weingarten/Gates Foundation announce drone-driven teacher evaluation

According to a press release issued by the Gates Foundation, the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, these three have entered a ground-breaking partnership to evaluate teachers utilizing the drone technology that has revolutionized warfare in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. A bird-size device floats up to 400 feet above a classroom and instantly beams live video of teachers in action to agents at desks at Teacher Quality Inspection Stations established by the AFT and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.

When asked if the drones were authorized to drop bombs on teachers who exhibit inadequacy, Chester E. Finn, Jr., president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, replied, "Don't be ridiculous. Gates money puts other methods at our disposal."

Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million-member American Federation of Teachers said the powerful union has signed on to the drone project...

More at Substance

The Real Reason Behind Push for Standardized Tests: It's All About the Adults

On standardized testing in our schools

A must read article about the standardized test industry.
Written by an insider who has worked as a test scorer, the article outlines a multinational industry based on an army of temporary workers paid by the piece at $0.30 to $0.70 per test, translated in the need to grade 40 tests per hour to make a $12 salary. The article goes on to show how the companies gauge the grading "results" based on the need to ensure new contracts to continue profiting off of our youth. The original article is from Monthly Review. Here it is on Schools Matter blog.

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/12/on-growing-use-of-corporate-test.html

Parallels between America today and Germany in the 1920's and early 30's

"Resentment and obstruction are all the right wing in America have to peddle. Their policies are utterly discredited. Their ideology - even by its own standards - is a sham. They are so bereft of leaders, their de facto leader is a former drug addicted, thrice-divorced radio talk show host. That is literally the best they can muster. But they have built a national franchise inciting the downwardly mobile to blame the government, not the right, for their problems, exactly as Hitler did in the 1920s."

The US Is Facing a Weimar Moment

Published on Sunday, March 15, 2009 by CommonDreams.org

Chicago View of Unity/UFT on Charters

After many meetings and debates, the Chicago delegation succeeded in working with the New York United Federation of Teachers, Local 2 (UFT) to push the AFT to take stronger stands on charter school accountability and school closings — though many delegates from Chicago would have liked the language to have been even stronger.

Generally speaking, the New York delegation represented organizing charters as the best model for handling their role in reshaping unions, despite the fact that according to many reports few charter schools in New York have been organized as is the case in Chicago. This logic is the same touted by the Progressive Caucus of the AFT. The few that have been organized are a part of the UFT local though they have separate contracts negotiated with the help of UFT. The Chicago delegation reflection the mindset that allowing new charters to continue to proliferate while attempting to organize existing charters is an end game in which public schools and the union lose.

Jen Johnson, CTU, Local 1 in Substance

Ed Notes Greatest Hits: HSA Rally and Founding of GEM

SEE MY VIDEO ON HARLEM SUCCESS RALLY 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEp7rg_L5JI

Angel Gonzalez and I attended that rally and used the footage to promote our conference on Mar. 28, 2009, which is where the concept of a group like GEM emerged. Until then we had basically been a committee of ICE working with the NYCORE high stakes testing group. The actions of Eva and crew helped spawn GEM. Mommie Dearest!!

I have more video somewhere. I was hoping to get Leni Riefenstahl to edit it but she died. We would have called it "Triumph of the Hedge Fund Operators."

Ed Notes Extended

Sunday, July 1, 2018

Brooke Parker exposes sham of @CenturyFoundation report on "diversity by design" charter schools

No comments: