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Monday, September 16, 2013
SLPS SPOTLIGHT NEWS
Saturday, September 14, 2013
Friday, September 13, 2013
School performance reviews mislead : Stltoday
School performance reviews mislead : Stltoday
by Peter Downs, former SLPS Elected School Board President
by Peter Downs, former SLPS Elected School Board President
Thursday, September 5, 2013
The failure of the state takeover? State audit finds St. Louis schools are promoting hundreds of kids who can't read well : News
So much for the story about how rule by a non-elected CEO would bring great improvements to SLPS:
St Louis Post-Dispatch, Elisa Crouch
State audit finds St. Louis schools are promoting hundreds of kids who can't read well : News
St Louis Post-Dispatch, Elisa Crouch
State audit finds St. Louis schools are promoting hundreds of kids who can't read well : News
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Charter Schools: Teachers, But Not to Last?
Given a real 'choice,' most parents would rather not send their children to a school staffed with teachers with such little experience, who, just as they might be in the process of developing into real educators, are looking to move on. Much like the Peace Corps and global poverty, such a charter school teachers' 'youth movement' seems like a nice gesture by upwardly mobile young people, but not a solution to the real problems.
From the New York Times:
From the New York Times:
Charter networks are developing what amounts to a youth movement in which teaching for two to five years is seen as acceptable, even desirable.
"Charter school networks are developing what amounts to a youth movement in which teaching for two to five years is seen as acceptable and, at times, even desirable." READ MORE
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Student transfer tuition could add millions to district budgets : News
Student transfer tuition could add millions to district budgets : News
In other words, poor struggling districts are transferring money to better-off districts. And what of those students who will stay behind?
In other words, poor struggling districts are transferring money to better-off districts. And what of those students who will stay behind?
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Critical Assessment of Teach for America - Chicago
from Kenzo Shibata, Jacobin magazine:
"TFA is in crisis mode. With the organization losing true believers within its rank-and-file, it doubled down on recruitment and doubled down on marketing. It’s just a shame that none of this has anything to do with improving teaching and learning.
http://jacobinmag.com/2013/07/teach-for-america-mission/
"TFA is in crisis mode. With the organization losing true believers within its rank-and-file, it doubled down on recruitment and doubled down on marketing. It’s just a shame that none of this has anything to do with improving teaching and learning.
Teach for America has come under heavy scrutiny in recent months. The organization was imagined over twenty years ago by Princeton undergraduate Wendy Kopp to combat the teacher shortage in urban and rural communities. TFA was to bring recent graduates from elite universities to teach in needy schools.
The idea was pretty simple. TFA was not better for students; it was better than nothing. Providing staff in these schools alleviated overcrowding and research shows that class size does matter in a child’s education.
Twenty years later, school districts are firing huge swaths of educators due to budget cuts. These dedicated teachers lose their jobs through no fault of their own, but find themselves competing for a dwindling number of open teaching slots. One would think that at this point, TFA is no longer necessary. We have a surplus of teachers and until politicians make education a priority and fund more teaching positions, this trend will continue...."
- See more at: http://jacobinmag.com/2013/07/teach-for-america-mission/#sthash.GiNQQMiJ.dpufhttp://jacobinmag.com/2013/07/teach-for-america-mission/
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
Friday, July 19, 2013
Thursday, May 23, 2013
Re: KIPP's Report Cards: KIPP expelling students before test time
In Nashville, along with other charter schools -- KIPP appears to be dumping weaker students just before test-time to boost their scores. Might this be happening in St. Louis?
Charter schools losing struggling students to zoned schools - WSMV Channel 4
The reporter in Nashville concludes: "The two types of schools are playing by different rules."
And see our post on St. Louis KIPP from a few days ago here.
Charter schools losing struggling students to zoned schools - WSMV Channel 4
The reporter in Nashville concludes: "The two types of schools are playing by different rules."
And see our post on St. Louis KIPP from a few days ago here.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Philadelphia, starting to look like Santiago, Chile....
Students mobilizing to protest attacks on their schools.
From the Youtube site:
Thousands of students walked out of class Friday May 17th to say no to drastic budget cuts that will eliminate extracurriculars, nurses, support staff and other programs in schools. They marched from the Phila. School District Headquarters at 440 N. Broad street to City Hall, closing down traffic for the afternoon hours.
From the Youtube site:
Thousands of students walked out of class Friday May 17th to say no to drastic budget cuts that will eliminate extracurriculars, nurses, support staff and other programs in schools. They marched from the Phila. School District Headquarters at 440 N. Broad street to City Hall, closing down traffic for the afternoon hours.
Monday, May 20, 2013
STL BEACON: Enthusiastic article on KIPP, but...
...read the article critically and check the results closely. KIPP is only as good or better than SLPS (which is admittedly struggling) in some MAP scores. KIPP is still below (sometimes well below) Missouri average in most. In most cases less (sometimes significantly less) than 50% of KIPP students are scoring proficient in any field. KIPP matches Missouri averages only in fifth grade science. Whether or not this is a model for improving education for any, let alone, all students in St. Louis is still an open question. However, the article reads as if it is promotional material for KIPP, which plans to open another school in St. Louis in 2014 (and four more in the future). For article and image, see: https://www.stlbeacon.org/#!/content/30931/kipp_school_graduates_051513Looking over KIPP's own St. Louis report card for the 2011-2012 norm referenced test for measuring year-to-year academic progress we see that students were tested first in fifth grade, then performed slightly worse in sixth grade (in reading and math), and improved again in seventh. Data are not offered for science in sixth and seventh grades. With missing data we presume that they fared worse? Or were not tested?
Now that I'm curious, I explore the national KIPP report card further -- see: http://www.kipp.org/reportcard to pick any city you want. Kansas City KIPP is faring worse than STL KIPP. There KIPP is failing to match struggling public schools across many grades, topping them only at three points. Like St. Louis KIPP, they are still well below state averages (and Missouri averages, nation-wide, remember, are in the lower half of all states across the nation). Curiously again, data are not provided for 6th and 7th Science in KC, which gives only 5th and 8th. When data are missing, one wonders why. See:
http://www.kipp.org/00/docs/ReportCard/KIPP_2012_ReportCard_KIPP_Endeavor_Academy.pdf
As with other charters, one might expect that schools untethered from the burdens of teachers' unions and public school bureaucracies, with parents who have exercised their own initiative and choice to attend, the ability to expel or exclude students who present difficult challenges, with motivated teachers free to experiment with the best pedagogical models, leaders who are energetic and qualified, competing with public schools in dire shape, and doing all of this with public money and significant corporate financial and university support, would be posting much clearer and convincing signs of success than this article and the report card illustrate.
Nat'l Council of Teachers of Math: Excellent Speech on Education and (In)equality
Excellent, reasoned, data-driven critique of the corporate reform/high-stakes testing/attack the teacher model currently being proposed across the country.
As Diane Ravitch commented on her blog, which also posted this, "Pay particular attention to his evidence about the effects of charter schools." And consider as well the core issue: child poverty.
See some good figures on how poverty shapes educational outcomes in his slides, available at:
http://www.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Conferences/Annual_Meetings/2013-Denver/-NCTM%20Iris%20Carl%20Talk%204-19-13.pdf
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
New Book: The Changing Politics of Education: Privatization and The Dispossessed Lives Left Behind (Fabricant and Fine)
A study that illustrates many issues related to school reform in St. Louis and Missouri:
The Changing Politics of Education: Privatization and the Dispossessed Lives Left Behind
http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=321381http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=321381
The Changing Politics of Education: Privatization and the Dispossessed Lives Left Behind
Michael Fabricant & Michelle Fine (Paradigm, 2013)
Description
The authors persuasively argue that the present cascade of reforms to public education is a consequence of a larger intention to shrink government. The startling result is that more of public education’s assets and resources are moving to the private sector and to the prison industrial complex. Drawing on various forms of evidence—structural, economic, narrative, and youth-generated participatory research—the authors reveal new structures and circuits of dispossession and privilege that amount to a clear failure of present policy. Policymaking is at war with the interests of the vast majority of citizens, and especially with urban youth of color. In the final chapter the authors explore democratic principles and offer examples essential to mobilizing, in solidarity with educators, youth, communities, labor, and allied social movements, the kind of power necessary to contest the present direction of public education reform.
Reviews
This is one of those very rare books on public education and social dispossession that bursts the bounds of its brilliant scholarship and explodes into a soaring call for action. Fine and Fabricant carefully dissect the ideological attack upon the public schools, the selling off of public services to the private sector, the marginalization of professional teachers, and the relegation of low-income students to the status of expendables. But the genius of this book lies in its recognition that disinvestment in the public schools and their replacement by selective boutique institutions are serving the purpose for which they were intended: mightily expanding the inequalities of wealth, darkening the futures of the dispossessed, and cannibalizing what remains of democratic spirit in a corporate society. The book ends with strong proposals -- “direct action” and “the reinvention of the work of unions,” among other bold suggestions that are seldom heard from academic authors in this era of retrenchment. The book has an electrifying tone. It creates a sense of urgency. I’m profoundly grateful to the authors.
--Jonathan Kozol
--Jonathan Kozol
http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=321381http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=321381
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Sinquefield and local control – of schools - St. Louis American: Political Eye
Sinquefield and local control – of schools - St. Louis American: Political Eye: Four Missourians with expertise in public education filed a lawsuit against Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander and Missouri State Audito…
What knowledge is good for - St. Louis American: Columnists
What knowledge is good for - St. Louis American: Columnists: Because I majored in cultural anthropology, people always asked, “What are you going to do with that?” If you studied anything other than medi…
Thursday, May 2, 2013
ONLINE SCHOOLING: Making us better or worse?
Nation’s Online Elementary and Secondary Schools Expand Rapidly, But Academic Performance Lags Behind Other Public Schools, New Report Finds | National Education Policy Center
Boulder, Colo. (May 2, 2013) -- A national study, released today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC), offers a comprehensive review of 311 virtual schools operating in the United States. It finds serious and systemic problems with the nation’s full-time cyber schools.
University of Colorado, Boulder Professor Alex Molnar, who edited Virtual Schools in the U.S. 2013: Politics, Performance, Policy, and Research Evidence, summed it up this way: “Even a cursory review of virtual schooling in the U.S. reveals an environment much like the legendary wild west. There are outsized claims, lagging performance, intense conflicts, lots of taxpayer money at stake, and very little solid evidence to justify the rapid expansion of virtual schools.”READ MORE: http://nepc.colorado.edu/newsletter/2013/05/virtual-schools-annual-2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
New NEPC Report: Reviews Claims on Benefits of Mayoral Governance
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Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
The test score racket - St. Louis American: Columnists
The test score racket - St. Louis American: Columnists: It is time to acknowledge that the fashionable theory of school reform – requiring that pay and job security for teachers, principals and admi…
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
PUBLIC EVENT: RACE, DEMOCRACY, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION (Tues. Apr. 16 @ 7 PM)
RACE, DEMOCRACY, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION (Tues. Apr. 16 @ 7 PM)
Washington University - Siegle Hall Room L006
The event will take place on the campus of Washington University, in Siegle Hall, room L006 (lower level) on Tuesday April 16th at 7PM. All are welcome. The event will be video-taped for archiving and re-broadcast.
Check back here for more information.
For a campus map, see: http://wustl.edu/community/visitors/maps/danforthmap.pdf.
Siegle Hall is on the west end of campus. (Building 97 on the map). Best parking would be in the garage (enter off Forsyth), or in the lots to the south and east of Siegle Hall (near building 105 on the map). There are also metered spaces along Forsyth.
For more information, write: Bret Gustafson (gustafson@wustl.edu) or visit: http://stlouisschoolsproject.blogspot.com/.
The St Louis Schools Project, with the support of the Washington University Department of Anthropology, the Department of Education, and the Center on Urban Research and Public Policy, is proud to host a book presentation and lecture by Peter Downs, author of Schoolhouse Shams: Myths and Misinformation in School Reform, published 2012 by Rowman-Littlefield.
The book explores the recent history of school reform politics in St. Louis, written through the first-hand experience of Peter Downs, who was President of the Elected School Board of the St. Louis Public Schools and a direct participant in many of these debates.
Dr. Diane Ravitch, internationally recognized scholar of American education and research professor in education at New York University writes that the book is a "provocative, informative, and timely book about school reform in St. Louis. Its lessons apply to many cities undergoing similar reforms today." This is sure to be a lively discussion.
Lecture:
"Schoolhouse Shams and Current Issues in Education Reform"
Peter Downs, author, former president, St. Louis Public School Board:
Commentary:
Donna Jones, member, St. Louis Public School Board.
Katie Wessling, president, St. Louis Public School Board.
The lecture and commentary will be followed by time for public questions. Peter Downs' book will be available for purchase and signing.
The event will take place on the campus of Washington University, in Siegle Hall, room L006 (lower level) on Tuesday April 16th at 7PM. All are welcome. The event will be video-taped for archiving and re-broadcast.
Check back here for more information.
For a campus map, see: http://wustl.edu/community/visitors/maps/danforthmap.pdf.
Siegle Hall is on the west end of campus. (Building 97 on the map). Best parking would be in the garage (enter off Forsyth), or in the lots to the south and east of Siegle Hall (near building 105 on the map). There are also metered spaces along Forsyth.
For more information, write: Bret Gustafson (gustafson@wustl.edu) or visit: http://stlouisschoolsproject.blogspot.com/.
Monday, April 1, 2013
Shocking Rahm's Shock Doctrine | The Nation
Shocking Rahm's Shock Doctrine | The Nation
Coming soon to (or already at) a city near you. Mayor Slay (recently re-elected) announced in one campaign flyer a plan for "sustainability" that includes 20 new charter schools, even as public schools are being closed.
Coming soon to (or already at) a city near you. Mayor Slay (recently re-elected) announced in one campaign flyer a plan for "sustainability" that includes 20 new charter schools, even as public schools are being closed.
The Guardian on Chicago/STL Style School Reform
Chicago is ground zero for disastrous 'free market' reforms of education
Chicago has turned public schools into privately run charters. The results aren't stellar and other cities should beware
Micah Uetricht - - The Guardian
"If you want a glimpse of what slash-and-burn free market education reform does in cities throughout the US, look no further than Chicago. Last week, Chicago Public Schools announced its plan to close 54 public elementary schools in the city by next year – about 8% of all public schools in the city. Almost all are located on the city's south and west sides in predominantly black neighborhoods.
In a city where the majority of black children live in poverty, in communities long plagued by hyper-segregation, unemployment, youth violence, and disinvestment, these neighborhoods will likely be thrown into further chaos, as students (91% of whom are students of color) are forced to cross into rival gang territories. Public schools, which served as one of the few remaining community anchors, will be shuttered.
.....
Not all teachers unions have had the willingness or wherewithal to resist that agenda; many have capitulated, or at least been complicit. But the Chicago Teachers Union has fought back."
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Austerity's Cruelest Cut: Democracy Denied in Detroit | The Nation
Similarities to St. Louis school board: Republican-controlled legislature, majority minority (school district), disenfranchisement.
Austerity's Cruelest Cut: Democracy Denied in Detroit | The Nation
Austerity's Cruelest Cut: Democracy Denied in Detroit | The Nation
Monday, March 18, 2013
Editorial: Study points the way to better public schools : Stltoday
Editorial: Study points the way to better public schools : Stltoday
Mathematica, the think tank that carried out this research, is characterized by a generally pro-corporate model reform agenda in most of its research. Both the KIPP Foundation and the Walton Family foundation are clients of this think-tank. This suggests the possibility of a conflict of interests that jeopardizes the objectivity of the study. We would do well to await review by academic researchers without sponsored research agendas.
Mathematica, the think tank that carried out this research, is characterized by a generally pro-corporate model reform agenda in most of its research. Both the KIPP Foundation and the Walton Family foundation are clients of this think-tank. This suggests the possibility of a conflict of interests that jeopardizes the objectivity of the study. We would do well to await review by academic researchers without sponsored research agendas.
Charter Schools vs Excellent Public Schools for All
CHARTER SCHOOLS AND THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION
It’s time to refocus public policy on providing excellent public schools for all
Written by Stan Karp
New Jersey Education Association website.
Column: It’s time for my party to stand up for students instead of stepping on them
Column: It’s time for my party to stand up for students instead of stepping on them
Martin Casas (Missouri Times)
By a local Democratic activist calling for the embrace of Republican school reform proposals.
Martin Casas (Missouri Times)
By a local Democratic activist calling for the embrace of Republican school reform proposals.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Wash U. student leaders host forum tonight on fraternity’s racial incident - St. Louis American: Local News
Wash U. student leaders host forum tonight on fraternity’s racial incident - St. Louis American: Local News: Aggressive supporters of the Washington University fraternity pledges involved in the racial incident last week bombarded social media after t…
Film Screening: Precious Knowledge
Film Screening: Precious Knowledge
Monday, March 25 2013 at 6:00 PM in January Hall 110, Washington University
On Monday, March 25, José Gonzalez, a teacher in the Tucson Unified School District, and Alanna Castro, a student leader in Tucson, will join us for a screening of Precious Knowledge: A Documentary on Revolutionary Education. Both José and Alanna are featured in the documentary, and a moderated discussion will immediately follow the screening.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
SCHOOL BOARD ENDORSES LEWIS REED FOR MAYOR
From St. Louis Schools-Watch...
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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
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