NYC premiere of The Lottery

The NYC premiere of The Lottery was last night, and it was incredible – a brilliant, powerful film (which I've written about previously: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/04/lottery.html), followed by an enlightening and, at times, very emotional Q&A with a panel that included Chancellor Joel Klein, Eva Moskowitz, Madeleine Sackler (Director of The Lottery), Carl Willingham (parent featured in the film), and moderator Errol Lewis (NY Daily News columnist). My pictures from the evening are below and posted at: http://picasaweb.google.com/WTilson/TheLottery

I also videoed the Q&A and posted two VERY powerful excerpts. The first is by Carl Willingham, one of the parents featured in The Lottery (www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpokiZVMwRo):

"It's a horrible thing to see educating kids politicized and used for personal, political ideology, financial gain, power grabbing… At these space hearings, when I hear the opposition, it's almost never…the arguments are never about whether or not the kids are learning. It's always, 'they're grabbing space', it's our building…' The building belongs to the people, not the people who happen to be in the building [applause]. How much money Eva Moskowitz makes – I don't care. I just care about what my son is learning, and I think that every parent, that's what they care about. And I think there are a lot of people who have a mic all the time who irresponsibly play on people's fears and distrust to further their personal agenda. So it's nice that Madeleine was able to give people who don't always have a mic in from of them a microphone and a camera to say [drowned out by applause]"

The second is from a parent whose daughter is at an Achievement First school (www.youtube.com/watch?v=m62ZloTvKkE):

"I have an Achievement First scholar, she's in the kindergarten, so I went through the entire process, just as you… Sorry, I cried like the entire film…I'm sorry, I'm just so emotional. You know, we look, we search, we search for schools in our zone, tirelessly, and when I found Achievement First, it was like we'd won the lottery. It really was, because my child has a chance. You know, her zip code should NOT determine her future [applause]. What you all are doing is so phenomenal. Every since I've been at Achievement First, they have me for everything. I've been to Albany with them and I even spoke at this past lottery. So I totally believe in what you all are doing and this film is so important. Two of the parents [in the film] actually go to my church, and I am so touched about what you did. I run a nonprofit organization in East New York…I think we're at a 27% graduation rate in the entire zip code, so it's something that was truly needed in this community. My question is, when you are truly ready to release this, with my nonprofit organization, please let me show this film for my community. I'm going to be running a film festival in the fall and I would love to be spreading this message because they need to hear this, they really need to hear this because they need to know that they do not have to settle for what's given. They really don't. So thank you so much. [applause]

Madeleine Sackler's answer: "This goes for everyone: I can be reached at contact@thelotteryfilm.com. It's on our web site, www.thelotteryfilm.com, and I welcome any questions, comments, screening requests. We would love to do that, thank you!"

Review of the Lottery

Here's a review and op ed in the NY Daily News by Errol Lewis, who moderated the panel last night:

An already heated national debate over charter schools gets a few degrees hotter tonight with the premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival of "The Lottery," a powerful documentary about the Harlem Success Academy charters launched by former City Councilwoman Eva Moskowitz.

The film is designed to knock ambivalent people off the fence when it comes to the benefits of charter schools, and it does.

In the same way that "An Inconvenient Truth" mobilized a vast constituency to take action on climate change, "The Lottery" will create and energize charter supporters by the thousands. It conveys the desperation and urgency of urban public education better than the anti-charter forces can defend a status quo that is shockingly unfair and wholly unacceptable.

What people in well-off communities take for granted - the simple process of enrolling a child in kindergarten - takes on huge stakes in the film, which follows four Harlem families as they hope and pray (sometimes literally) for one of the scarce kindergarten slots in one of Moskowitz's schools, allocated by lottery.

Some charters - privately managed public schools with the power to alter their hours, work rules, budgets and curriculum - are scoring significantly better on standardized tests than the regular public schools around them.

Beyond scores, there's the look and feel of learning. You know it when you see it.

I have spent most of my life in one school or another. As a student, I've attended Catholic school in Harlem, public school in Westchester and earned degrees from Harvard, Yale and Brooklyn Law. As a college professor, I've spent at least one semester a year for the past decade teaching graduate and/or undergraduate students at Pace, Pratt, NYU, Long Island University and Hunter College.

I've visited Moskowitz's schools, sat in on classes and talked with her students. Anybody familiar with high-performing learning environments can tell within a few minutes that she's on to something that other educators should study and try to copy.

That's easier said than done. In Harlem and other communities, outstanding performance by charters has provoked envy, resentment and an organized backlash by teachers unions.

The divisions are understandable. It's hard not to get upset about the fact that public education in Harlem and other inner-city neighborhoods operates as a brutal social sorting mechanism.

A lucky few get steered to success, fulfillment and opportunity (only 10% of poor Americans ever make it to college). The unlucky ones are steered into a life marred by ignorance, inadequate skills, dead-end jobs, prison and worse.

"The Lottery" nails the cost of bad schooling perfectly. It's one thing to know in the abstract what it means to get a lousy education - but quite another to see a second-generation MTA bus driver wonder, wistfully, what he might have become with better courses and encouragement.

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'The Lottery' documentary shows education is a sure bet

Errol Louis

Thursday, April 29th 2010, 4:00 AM

www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2010/04/29/2010-04-29_the_lottery_documentary_shows_education_is_a_sure_bet.html#ixzz0manosl3L

When the System Works

A NYT editorial about an innovative turnaround model being pioneered in Charlotte, NC:

Two years ago, district administrators adopted an innovative staffing system intended to put the best principals in the most troubled schools — and give them the autonomy they need to succeed. While Charlotte was already one of the highest-performing urban systems in the country, it has made progress since then.

Under the Strategic Staffing Initiative, principals who have improved student performance at their current school are given bonuses and allowed to recruit new leadership teams in exchange for moving to chronically low-performing schools.

Once at the new schools, the principals are permitted to remove as many as five teachers if they consider them to be hostile to reform. These turnaround schools are also given high priority when their new leadership teams request technology, staffing or new programs.

Turning a school around is not supposed to be easy. But by the end of just the first year, test scores in the first seven schools had risen significantly and the schools were visibly more orderly.

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April 26, 2010

NYT Editorial

www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/opinion/26mon2.html

When the System Works

Florida's Unheralded School Revolution

A WSJ op ed today about the expansion of Florida's tax credit program and the exciting long-term implications – note the Democratic support! (also note that Crist just announced that he's running for Senate as an independent – it'll be interesting to see how the unions reward him for killing the tenure/merit pay bill two weeks ago):

Two weeks ago Florida Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a bill that would have ended teacher tenure and established merit pay. His action was widely criticized and effectively ended his primary race for the U.S. Senate as a Republican.

And yet last week, Mr. Crist signed an education bill that will dramatically expand the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship Program. It has attracted little attention, but this legislation could revolutionize K-12 education in the Sunshine State.

…This change could prove dramatic: In 10 years the program could raise $1.3 billion and support over 8% of Florida's students. In 15 years it could approach $4 billion and support more than a quarter of the state's students. A girl born in Florida today might find that a third or more of her peers are being educated in private schools by the time she sets foot in high school.

But will the state's politicians and special interests allow that transformation to take place? Looking at how the reform legislation fared in the state's Republican controlled legislature, it seems the answer is already in. The bill passed both houses overwhelmingly, including support from 42% of Democrats and 52% of the legislative black caucus. (Nearly every Republican voted yes.) That is a remarkable turnabout for a program that received one Democratic vote when it was created in 2001. Why the shift?

…But money is far from the only reason Democrats support this program. State Rep. Bill Heller, the top Democrat on the House Education Policy Council, wrote recently in the St. Petersburg Times, "To me, a scholarship option for poor, struggling schoolchildren is in the greatest tradition of our collective commitment to equal educational opportunity."

There is also clear evidence that many private schools outperform public schools academically. The first children to enter the Washington, D.C., voucher program, for example, now read more than two grade levels above students who applied for the program but didn't win the voucher lottery.

Researchers from Northwestern University will soon release a study on how competition from Florida's education tax-credit program is impacting the performance of children who remain in public schools. The preliminary evidence is that school choice lifts the performance of public-school students significantly.

Florida's scholarship program appears to be the first statewide private school choice program to reach a critical mass of funding, functionality and political support. As an ever increasing number of students in Florida take advantage of the scholarship program, other states will find it hard to resist enacting broad-based school choice.

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OPINION
APRIL 30, 2010

Florida's Unheralded School Revolution

A scholarship program could produce a new era of choice.

By ADAM B. SCHAEFFER

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703709804575202310888043490.html

NY New Route to teacher certification

Two articles below about a potentially VERY important step forward in NY to create alternative teacher certification routes. Kudos to Merryl Tisch and David Steiner! I say "potentially", however, because the devil's in the details – and the details aren't 100% certain yet. It's critical that the alternate programs have a great deal of flexibility to innovate…

Will alternative certification finally be alternative? In New York State, at least, the answer is yes. Under a pilot plan passed unanimously by the State Board of Regents on Tuesday (and ushered through by a former ed school dean, David Steiner), alternative teacher preparation programs such as Teach For America and New York City Teaching Fellows will no longer have to concurrently enroll their participants in traditional education school master's programs. New York State still requires teachers to obtain a master's degree within five years of entering the classroom, but TFA, NYCTF, and other alt cert organizations will be able to create their own master's programs, with the Regents awarding the degree themselves; the degree-recipient would have to commit to work in a high-needs school for four years. Many states have alt cert pathways, but only a few, such as Rhode Island and Louisiana, let those alternative programs effectively certify their own teachers. As a result, in most other states, the "alternative" route looks a whole lot like a traditional ed school experience. No more. In what's a nod to both criticisms that ed schools aren't up to snuff and that these alternative programs are producing teachers at least as good as, if not better than, traditionally trained teachers, New York's alternative certification programs will now be just that: alternative. Let's hope more states follow suit.

"Regents Plan New Route to Master's in Teaching," by Lisa W. Foderaro, New York Times, April 20, 2010

"Alternative Path for Teachers Gains Ground," by Lisa W. Foderaro, New York Times, April 18, 2010

Smarter Teacher Layoff

posted at www.tntp.org/files/TNTP_Smarter_Teacher_Layoffs_Mar10.pdf is a very powerful policy brief by The New Teacher Project, with recommendations of how to do teacher layoffs in a way that doesn't screw kids (hint: it's not 100% by seniority), and also has a FASCINATING survey of teachers that shows that the HUGE majority of teachers (even ones with tenure and 20+ years of seniority) do NOT support their union in calling for layoffs driven purely by seniority. Here's a summary:

Amid signs that the economy will force school districts across the country to lay off teachers in the coming months, this policy brief shows strong teacher support for ending "quality-blind" layoff policies based strictly on seniority. It details an alternative approach to layoffs that would help schools retain their best teachers and reduce the impact on students when layoffs become unavoidable, while still valuing seniority appropriately. The proposed "quality-based" layoff system reflects the views of more than 9,000 teachers surveyed in two large urban districts.

Teach Like a Champion review

Jay Mathews with a glowing review of Teach Like a Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College (www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0470550473/tilsoncapitalpar):

A storm is brewing in teacher training in America. It involves a generational change that we education writers don't deal with much, but is more important than No Child Left Behind or the Race to the Top grants or other stuff we devote space to. Our urban public schools have many teachers in their twenties and thirties who are more impatient with low standards and more determined to raise student achievement than previous generations of inner city educators, having seen some good examples. But they don't know what exactly to do.

This new cohort is frustrated with traditional teacher training. They think most education schools are too fond of theory (favorite ed school philosopher John Dewey died in 1952 before many of their parents were born) and too casual about preparing them for the practical challenges of teaching impoverished children.

So they are welcoming a new book. Much-underlined versions of it have been passed around like samizdat literature. Its title, "Teach Like A Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College," sounds phony. But the origins of this 332-page paperback, plus DVD, suggest education schools, and local teacher evaluation systems like those in D.C. and Montgomery County, are going to have to deal with it or wish they had.

The author, Doug Lemov, 42, is a managing director of Uncommon Schools, one of the high-performing public charter schools networks leading the charge against school district bureaucracies and old ways of training. He has watched and videoed the moves made and the words spoken by the most successful classroom teachers he knows, then written down the techniques they share.

There is much detail. I was exhausted just reading it. First of the 49 techniques is "No Opt Out," what you do when a student says she can't answer your question or doesn't respond at all. You move to other students, and when you get the right answer return to the first student and insist she repeat what she just heard, proving no one can excuse themselves from your class. Number 38 is "Strong Voice," speaking clearly and forcefully while standing still in a way that makes it difficult for students NOT to hear what you are saying. Number 49 is "Normalizing Error," responding to a wrong answer with a quick and non-judgmental effort to get the right one, so students realize that making mistakes is just part of the learning process.

For an technical book aimed at teachers, "Teach Like a Champion" is getting big play, including a March 7 cover story in the New York Times Magazine by GothamSchools.org editor Elizabeth Green. Whether that will produce big results is not so clear.

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Explosive book for a new teacher generation

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/04/explosive_book_for_a_new_teach.html#more

Jay Mathews

A storm is brewing in teacher training in America. It involves a generational change that we education writers don't deal with much, but is more important than No Child Left Behind or the Race to the Top grants or other stuff we devote space to. Our urban public schools have many teachers in their twenties and thirties who are more impatient with low standards and more determined to raise student achievement than previous generations of inner city educators, having seen some good examples. But they don't know what exactly to do.

This new cohort is frustrated with traditional teacher training. They think most education schools are too fond of theory (favorite ed school philosopher John Dewey died in 1952 before many of their parents were born) and too casual about preparing them for the practical challenges of teaching impoverished children.

So they are welcoming a new book. Much-underlined versions of it have been passed around like samizdat literature. Its title, "Teach Like A Champion: 49 Techniques That Put Students on the Path to College," sounds phony. But the origins of this 332-page paperback, plus DVD, suggest education schools, and local teacher evaluation systems like those in D.C. and Montgomery County, are going to have to deal with it or wish they had.

The author, Doug Lemov, 42, is a managing director of Uncommon Schools, one of the high-performing public charter schools networks leading the charge against school district bureaucracies and old ways of training. He has watched and videoed the moves made and the words spoken by the most successful classroom teachers he knows, then written down the techniques they share.

There is much detail. I was exhausted just reading it. First of the 49 techniques is "No Opt Out," what you do when a student says she can't answer your question or doesn't respond at all. You move to other students, and when you get the right answer return to the first student and insist she repeat what she just heard, proving no one can excuse themselves from your class. Number 38 is "Strong Voice," speaking clearly and forcefully while standing still in a way that makes it difficult for students NOT to hear what you are saying. Number 49 is "Normalizing Error," responding to a wrong answer with a quick and non-judgmental effort to get the right one, so students realize that making mistakes is just part of the learning process.

For an technical book aimed at teachers, "Teach Like a Champion" is getting big play, including a March 7 cover story in the New York Times Magazine by GothamSchools.org editor Elizabeth Green. Whether that will produce big results is not so clear.

Many education schools are taking steps in this direction, particularly with video. But Lemov provides more detail than many of them are comfortable with. One professor told me education students can't be motivated to embrace such methods until they are in a rough classroom fighting to survive. The ed schools give them theory and practice in digestible form, and send them off. If they don't get a good mentor teacher, they are in trouble.

Teachers creating new evaluation systems in D.C. and Montgomery share some of Lemov's impatience. What he is offering is hard, and easy to dismiss it as too minimal, too routinized, too basic. Whether it succeeds depends on how many of the restless new generation of teachers are willing to work that hard, when some experts say they don't need it and the pay isn't that good anyway.

But as Lemov puts it, methods that work as well as these make the school day go much more quickly and smoothly, and justify the high hopes of this new group of educators.

The irksome myth about Garfield after Escalante

Mathews dispels a myth about Escalante and Garfield High School:

There is a widespread myth that Garfield High School in East Los Angeles went downhill academically after its superstar math teacher, Jaime Escalante, left the school in 1991.

It is important to understand why this is false. Galvanizing school cultures are maintained by many people, not just hero teachers. Great teachers like Escalante can create such cultures, but the test of their validity is what happens after that teacher leaves.

Over the years I assumed the myth would fade away. But after Escalante died of cancer on March 30, it popped up in several articles…

…That critical mass of hard-working educators has kept Garfield among the elite of inner-city schools for the last two decades. You have to spend some time at Garfield to appreciate what a feat that is. The school is overcrowded. Its average test scores on state tests are at the bottom of the heap, as they were when Escalante was there. No one has found a way to turn every student in inner-city schools into Ivy League prospects. But the people at Garfield have done a better job than the vast majority of teachers elsewhere. With or without Escalante, that deserves some credit.

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The irksome myth about Garfield after Escalante

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/04/the_dangerous_myth_about_garfi.html#more

What Jaime Escalante Taught Us That Hollywood Left Out

Another article about the full story behind Escalante's amazing success:

"Ganas. That's all you need … ganas," says the whispering Edward James Olmos in "Stand and Deliver," the 1988 film that famously depicts Jaime Escalante and his 18 inner-city math students who leap from fractions to calculus in just two years. "You can't teach logarithms to illiterates," the uptight math department head says, but Olmos' Escalante touts ganas, the desire to succeed, as the single ingredient to his Los Angeles barrio kids' success.

But the real-life tale of Jaime Escalante and his unprecedented Advanced Placement calculus program shows that it takes a bit more than ganas to obliterate the achievement gap between poor kids and rich. Based on his actions, Escalante knew this.

As educators, students, and citizens alike mourn the loss of the beloved math teacher, who died March 30, outpourings of support and sadness understandably veer toward the film: "Loved that movie," wrote a teacher-friend of mine. But Escalante reportedly told Reason magazine in 2002 that the film was "90 percent truth and 10 percent drama." Ah, how crucial that 10 percent is. In a time when American policymakers are arguing left and right about how to salvage the nation's many failing schools, it's worth honoring both Escalante and American students by examining the real strategies used in transforming an underperforming department into a dazzling decade-long flagship.

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What Jaime Escalante Taught Us That Hollywood Left Out

Remembering America's Favorite Math Teacher

By Heather Kirn Lanier

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/04/21/29lanier.h29.html

Tensions Flare in Race to Top's Second Round

Round 2 of Race to the Top is heating up and tensions flare (with a nice quote from DFER's Charles Barone):

With the second-round deadline for federal Race to the Top Fund grants less than six weeks away, states are rushing to raise the stakes on their education reform plans as they fight over the remaining $3.4 billion in prize money.

But in doing so, states from Massachusetts to Colorado are tangling with their teachers' unions as they test how far they can go to meet federal officials' demands that they be aggressive, yet inclusive, in devising a road map to dramatically improve student achievement.

"On one hand, the federal government is saying, 'Be bold,' which implies significant challenge to the status quo, which then tends to be disruptive and generate resistance," said S. Paul Reville, the education secretary in Massachusetts, where the American Federation of Teachers affiliate has revoked its support of the state's second-round application over teacher issues. "Yet at the same time, the federal government is asking us to get full [district and union] support," he said. "That's the dynamic tension."

…"There's a myth being perpetuated that buy-in is the decisive factor, but there are states showing they can have statewide impact without everyone saying they're happy," said Charles Barone, the director of federal policy for Democrats for Education Reform, a New York City-based political action committee that's been tracking and critiquing the Race to the Top competition. "It shouldn't be a popularity contest."

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Tensions Flare in Race to Top's Second Round

States, Teachers' Unions Clash Over Contest-Driven Reforms

By Michele McNeil

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/04/28/30stim-race_ep.h29.html?tkn=VVWFhReRMbRaoO%2F%2F1evheY2eHs5La%2BuWhxh8&cmp=clp-edweek

Teachers union vs. black school-choice candidate

A nice article about Anthony Williams, who's running for Gov. of PA (see: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/04/sparks-fly-at-dems-gov-debate.html):

A May 18 Pennsylvania Democratic primary for governor could change the national debate on parental school choice. A singularly independent black candidate, state Sen. Anthony Williams, is focusing on giving parents the right to choose among charter schools, vouchers for private schools and those public schools that actually work for all children.

"Many inner city schools," he says, "remain separate and not equal for African-American and other disadvantaged children." He wants "the dollars to follow the child."

Williams is strongly opposed by the teachers union, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, as are nearly all school-choice candidates around the country, few of whom are black Democrats. Any of the pro-choice politicians would lose union financial support.

"Many African-American elected leaders," Williams told me, "are not in step with people in their communities." In Harlem, for example, as I told him, large numbers of black parents are competing for places in charter schools there that markedly outperform the local public schools. In addition to the teachers union, a fierce leading opponent of the charter schools there is prominent black New York State Sen. Bill Perkins. He may lose his seat.

What makes Anthony Williams even more singular is his unusually active and substantive record for the 8th Senatorial District, which spans small towns, suburban enclaves and communities in South, West and South-West Philadelphia. The Philadelphia AFL-CIO supports Williams' re-election to the Senate but is silent on his gubernatorial candidacy. In that race, organized labor's primary allegiance is to the teachers union rather than the students.

I have been covering politics for more than 60 years – first in Massachusetts, then in New York and around the country on my basic beats, education and the health of the Constitution. I have rarely come across a legislator with such wide-ranging accomplishments in the Pennsylvania state Senate (since 1998) and in neighborhoods throughout the district.

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Teachers union vs. black school-choice candidate

Posted: April 28, 2010
Nat Hentoff

www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=146677

Imagine Schools’s response

Imagine Schools's response to last Saturday's front-page NYT slam (see: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/04/for-charter-school-company-issues-of.html):

Open Letter in Response to the New York Times

April 26, 2010

This past Saturday's New York Times misled its readers and mischaracterized Imagine Schools' true impact in so many communities. We are disappointed by the bias and lack of balance. As the largest charter school operator, we expect critics, especially from those with agendas against friendly competition, but we also expect fairness.

Throughout the numerous rounds of interviews, the reporter expressed virtually no interest in the true tests of successful schools: parent satisfaction and student achievement. At our insistence, the reporter visited an Imagine school, but she did not cover any aspect of that experience. The article essentially was written before the questions began and it didn't reflect balance. The reporter ignored every positive Imagine news story – no less than four in the last month.

The reporter didn't interview the many satisfied parents and educators, who choose Imagine every day. The fact that some parents at four schools were unhappy does not a trend make when those at 70 campuses are satisfied, most schools are full, and over 90% of students re-enroll. If parents weren't satisfied, the schools would be empty. Despite providing the reporter with contacts from all across the country ranging from principals to parents, only one was quoted (and he was misquoted). The article incorrectly attributes financial comments to a DC board member, who is pleased with Imagine.

Particularly troubling, the Times failed to capture the impact that Imagine educators are having in children's lives – both in their education and character development. Are the students learning much more than in the schools from which they transferred? Yes, 89% of Imagine's schools achieve student learning gains that are higher than the national average. Most students enter Imagine's schools achieving below grade level and make larger academic strides compared to traditional school peers. We love that our students are from very diverse backgrounds. Two-thirds are from ethnic, racial, and minority populations. Additionally, 58% qualify for the free or reduced federal lunch program.

Imagine Schools and its subsidiaries do not operate for profit, and Imagine is awaiting final IRS approval of its nonprofit status. The Bakkes personally provided $155 million to deliver quality public school choice through Imagine Schools. Imagine spends 100% of the money on the students and schools we operate. Administrative costs are significantly less than what is spent by similarly sized school districts (Minneapolis and Buffalo). Charter schools often receive less money per student than traditional public schools. Most charter schools receive NO monies for facilities. Therefore, the reduced per student allocation must pay for everything: textbooks, teachers, administration, and buildings. Imagine's schools deliver a high quality education for less money – a substantial benefit to taxpayers and communities.

We believe that a high quality school building is an important ingredient in fulfilling our mission to educate children. We will not start a school unless the costs of the building are reasonable and affordable. Just as government-operated schools use bonds to finance schools, Imagine Schools (through Schoolhouse Finance) uses its credit to provide the financial backing for long-term leases and building purchases. Each school's lease rate is based on the actual costs to purchase, construct or renovate the school building and associated land. Thus, the school is able to benefit from having a safe, stable, and long term presence in the community without taking on a bigger or longer term obligation than it can handle.

Imagine Schools and the local charter boards share a common mission of student success and quality public school choice for families. Each of the local governing boards is structured legally and operates transparently. The working relationship between the board and Imagine is spelled out in detail prior to the award of the charter and is entered into voluntarily by both groups. We work diligently to have a cordial, productive partnership with all the boards that we work with. When mistakes are made, we move to correct them. We are accountable to parents, boards, authorizers, and taxpayers for fulfilling the important public trust of educating children.

Imagine Schools is bringing friendly competition to school districts, which leads to more innovation and better performance for all schools. Guided by shared values (integrity, justice, and fun), we are committed to helping parents and guardians educate their children. But the Times didn't want you to know that part of the story.

Charter Autonomy

A new study by the Fordham Institute on how states promise charter schools autonomy, but often don't deliver it:

Charter School Autonomy:
A Half-Broken Promise

This Fordham Institute study finds that the typical charter school in America today lacks the autonomy it needs to succeed, once state, authorizer, and other impositions are considered. Though the average state earns an encouraging B+ for the freedom its charter law confers upon schools, individual state grades in this sphere range from A to F. Authorizer contracts add another layer of restrictions that, on average, drop schools' autonomy grade to B-. (Federal policy and other state and local statutes likely push it down further.) School districts are particularly restrictive authorizers. The study was conducted by Public Impact. Read more here.

UCLA report

Nice to see another rebuttal to the completely wrong-headed UCLA study on supposed charter school segregation, which I slammed in Feb (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/02/ucla-report.html):

The Civil Rights Project at UCLA is out with a report blasting charter schools for being segregated. I don't know whether to laugh or cry. OF COURSE they're segregated – because most of them seek to serve students being failed the most by regular public schools – and guess what: most of these students are minority! As Joe Williams and DFER note: "The UCLA Civil Rights Project seemingly wants to block minority parents from choosing to enroll their children in better schools simply because it feels those schools aren't white enough. What's up with that?"

Imagine if charter schools instead were disproportionately NOT minority (which, as James Forman points out below, was in fact the concern in the early days of charter schools) – then these nitwits would be blasting them for creaming. If I read another study or article by clueless, out-of-touch-with-reality, knuckleheads in ivory towers, I'm gonna scream!

Below is what I posted on my blog in Oct. 2007 on this topic, and here's an excerpt:

Nelson Smith (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/02/charter-schools-and-civil-rights.html) and James Forman blasted it as well (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/02/james-forman-blasts-ucla-report.html).

Here's the press release:

Hoover Institution/Education Next News Release
For Immediate Release: April 27, 2010
Contact: Gary Ritter, University of Arkansas, garyr@uark.edu, 479-575-4971
Brian Kisida, Nathan Jensen, Joshua McGee, University of Arkansas, 479-575-3172

Charter Schools, Traditional Public Schools Similarly Segregated

Flawed comparisons lead Civil Rights Project to unwarranted conclusions

STANFORD -- New research conducted by Gary Ritter and associates at the University of Arkansas finds that the charter sector and the traditional public-school sector are not very different in the level of segregation experienced by students. The research is published in "A Closer Look at Charter Schools and Segregation <http://educationnext.createsend3.com/t/r/l/bikhkr/jjyduyill/r> ," which will appear in the Summer 2010 issue of Education Next and is now available online.

The new findings contradict the conclusions drawn by the authors of a study released in January 2010 by the UCLA-based Civil Rights Project (CRP). The authors of the CRP study, "Choice without Equity," concluded that charter schools are much more segregated than traditional public schools. Ritter finds that "when examined more appropriately, the data actually reveal small differences in the level of overall segregation between the charter school sector and the traditional public-school sector."

The basic flaw in the CRP study is that it compares the racial composition of charter schools, which tend to be located in inner cities, with that of traditional public schools, which are located in all different kinds of environments. "Based only on enrollments aggregated to the national and state level, the authors repeatedly highlight the overrepresentation of black students in charter schools in an attempt to portray a harmful degree of segregation," co-author Brian Kisida explains. "This comparison is likely to generate misleading conclusions for one simple reason, as the authors themselves point out… 'the concentration of charter schools in urban areas skews the charter school enrollment towards having higher percentages of poor and minority students.'"

Ritter continues, "Instead of asking whether all students in charter schools are more likely to attend segregated schools than are all students in traditional public schools, we should be comparing the levels of segregation for the students in charter schools to what they would have experienced had they remained in their residentially assigned public schools."

The CRP report includes an analysis of whether charter or traditional schools are more segregated within 39 metropolitan areas, however, the analysis does not take into account the fact that charter schools are disproportionately located in low-SES urban areas within those metropolitan areas.

The authors of the new study modified the analysis conducted by the CRP so that the percentage of students in segregated charter schools in just the central city would be compared to the percentage of students in segregated traditional public schools within the same central city for 8 large metropolitan areas. The results confirm that the Civil Rights Project's report overstates the relative level of segregation in the charter sector.

For example, the Civil Rights Project reports that, in the metropolitan area surrounding the District of Columbia, 91.2 percent of charter students are in segregated schools, compared with just 20.9 percent of students in traditional public schools. However, the reanalysis shows that, if the comparison is restricted to students in the central city, the percentage of charter students attending segregated schools stays roughly the same, but the percentage of students attending segregated traditional public schools jumps to 85 percent.

After re-analyzing the data for all 39 metropolitan areas, the authors of the re-analysis conclude, "Using the best available unit of comparison, we find that 63 percent of charter students in these central cities attend school in intensely segregated minority schools, as do 53 percent of traditional public school students." They note that this re-analysis likely underestimates the true levels of segregation in the traditional public schools that the charter school students would otherwise attend because, even within central cities, charter schools are more likely to open in neighborhoods that are more segregated.

Please read "A Closer Look at Charter Schools and Segregation: Flawed comparisons lead to overstated conclusions <http://educationnext.createsend3.com/t/r/l/bikhkr/jjyduyill/y> ," by Gary Ritter, Nathan Jensen, Brian Kisida, and Joshua McGee, available online at EducationNext.org <http://educationnext.createsend3.com/t/r/l/bikhkr/jjyduyill/j> .

Gary Ritter is professor of education policy at the University of Arkansas. Nathan Jensen, Brian Kisida, and Joshua McGee are research associates in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas.

Education Next is a scholarly journal published by the Hoover Institution that is committed to looking at hard facts about school reform. Other sponsoring institutions are the Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation.

Wendy Kopp award and Teach For America stats

I attended the annual gala last night for the Manhattan Institute, which gave Wendy Kopp its annual award. It is so well deserved! What she has built over the past 21 years is the nonprofit equivalent of Google.

I've posted her remarks (10 min) here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=zp_o_xbZGHQ

My favorite quotes:

A) "Four years ago, if your kid was born in New Orleans and was destined to attend the New Orleans public schools, there was no reason for hope. We met 8^th graders coming into our classrooms at the 2^nd grade level. Got there now. I spent two days walking around public schools in New Orleans, thinking 'I'd send my kids to any one of these.' The entrepreneurial energy there is absolutely remarkable."

B) "What gives me optimism therefore is what's happening on our college campuses. There are 47,000 people competing to challenge their energy into Teach for America this year. 18% of Harvard's senior class and 40% of the African-American seniors at Harvard competed to enter Teach for America. We'll bring in more people this year than we brought in in the whole first decade of our work."

Houston Trip

I had a GREAT visit to Houston on Monday. In the afternoon, I visited the main KIPP Houston campus, which has the very first KIPP school (a middle school) and now KIPP SHINE Prep, the first KIPP elementary school (the oldest students are now in 4^th grade; there are more than 800 students at the school!), and the KIPP Houston High School – about 1,700 students in total! Below are a few pics from my visit and I've posted the rest at: http://picasaweb.google.com/WTilson/KIPPHouston

I also enjoyed seeing Aaron Brenner, the founder of KIPP SHINE Prep and now the Head of Primary Schools for KIPP Houston, give an inspirational speech to the 3^rd and 4^th grade students, who had gathered in the auditorium for team-building in preparation for the state TAKS test that they were to take the following day. Of course I video-taped it: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO8qjsxAy4c (6 min) (note that Aaron speaks in Spanish as well – KIPP SHINE is a bilingual school and ALL the students must learn Spanish). I have no doubt that, as they did last year, the KIPPsters will CRUSH the exam, ranking among the very top public school schools in Texas (alongside only the wealthiest, whitest schools with no English Language Learners).

Then I went to Rice University which, along with KIPP and TFA, hosted an evening in which I presented my school reform presentation (updated again today; posted as always at: www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/TheCriticalNeedforGenuineSchoolReform.pdf), followed by an AMAZING panel that included Terry Bruner (ED of TFA in Houston), Rob Eissler (R)(Chair of TX House public ed committee), Scott Hochberg (D) (Vice chair of House ed committee), Prof. Steve Kleinberg (Rice University sociologist and Houston's leading demographer), and Terry Grier, the aggressively reform-minded superintendent of Houston Independent School District.

Another Horror Story

What goes on in many of our public schools, especially those "serving" mostly low-income, minority children is a crime of the highest order. I saw the latest evidence of this during a visit a short while ago to one of the finest public schools in the country, which happens to be a charter school, that, like most in NYC, shares space with a dismal, chronically failing district school. How do I know? When the principal and I walked through the district school to get to the charter school's space in the building, there was the usual chaos, so I whispered to the principal, "Seeing this must make your skin crawl."

The principal replied (as we were walking through the auditorium), "You know what really gets me? I come through here regularly, and they're showing movies."

To which I naively replied, "The History Channel? Documentaries?"

"No. Movies like The Karate Kid."

I've heard plenty of stories of individual teachers who have given up on their students and don't even TRY to educate them, so they just show movies in their classroom, but for this to be going on in the main auditorium with hundreds of students means THE ENTIRE SCHOOL HAS GIVEN UP – and these are LITTLE kids!

When educational malpractice is going on, obviously most of the kids will be barely able to read by, say, 4^th grade and, statistically speaking, are very likely to lead broken, ruined lives.

Seriously, if I were czar, I'd throw the principal and the teachers responsible for this in jail for a week or two. The crime they are committing against these children is FAR worse than many other crimes for which they really would go to jail.

Teacher Absences Plague Schools

Speaking of giving up on kids, even worse than showing up and turning the school into a day care center with movies, is not showing up at all. This WSJ article shares the not surprising – yet nevertheless horrifying – results of the WSJ's analysis of teacher absenteeism, which shows that 20% of NYC teachers missed more than two weeks of school last year – and 3.2% missed more than SIX weeks! This is what happens when you give people lifetime tenure and iron-clad job protection… And I'll give you one guess which districts had the worst absenteeism problem:

One-fifth of New York City teachers missed work for more than two weeks last school year, with absenteeism most acute in some of the poorest districts, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.

In Brownsville, for instance, 24.4% of teachers were absent more than the 10 sick days they are allotted each year, according to city Department of Education data. In the South Bronx, it was 22.1%. By contrast, in the district containing the more affluent Upper East Side schools, 13.2% of teachers were absent more than two weeks.

The city spent $119 million on substitute teachers last year, and studies show that, particularly for poor children, teacher absences affect student progress.

"It's one of those underbelly topics that no one focuses on, but contributes to the achievement gap," said Raegen T. Miller, associate director for education research at Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank. He pointed to research that has found that every 10 absences lowers math achievement by the same amount as having a teacher with one- to two-years experience instead of a teacher with three- to five-years experience

To his credit, however, UFT President Micheal Mulgrew issued the following statement:

"I read this report with concern and dismay. If, in fact, there are teachers who are chronically absent without good reason, then this is unacceptable. If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that every child deserves a capable, committed teacher who shows up every day. I will look into this issue and work with the Department of Education to address any problems."

Before you fall out of your chair -- JUST KIDDING!!! This is his actual pathetic quote:

Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers, cautioned that the figures include days in which teachers are absent beyond their control, such as required professional-development days and jury duty.

Even so, though, he said the poorest areas are the most stressful places to work. "That's the toughest the job can be."

It would be hard to find better evidence for my belief that the teachers' unions have gone from being professional associations to being just like the longshoreman's union. SHAME SHAME!

Could you imagine if there were a credible study that showed that doctors who staffed inner-city emergency rooms were chronically absent, leaving the ERs often understaffed, such that patients were dying? Do you think the President of the American Medical Association would issue a statement making excuses for the absent doctors and lamenting how hard their job was? Do you think most politicians representing these communities would remain silent – or would they be screaming bloody murder, pointing out (correctly) that this would NEVER be tolerated at hospitals serving the Upper East Side?!

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APRIL 28, 2010

Teacher Absences Plague Schools

A Fifth Missed More Than the 10 Days Allotted in Their Contract, With Some of the Poorest Districts the Hardest Hit

By BARBARA MARTINEZ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471204575210451375989306.html

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April 28, 2010, 2:37 PM ET

Class Divide? More Teacher Absences in Poorer Districts

http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2010/04/28/class-divide-more-teacher-absences-in-poorer-districts